Legendary Metropolitan Conductor, James Levine, Accused

It's been an open secret for many years. I first heard about him in the 90s. He's used to diddle some of the boys in the Metropolitan's Children's Chorus.

by Anonymous

reply 3

12/02/2017

I'm guessing he's a black boy

by Anonymous

reply 4

12/02/2017

I first read about him right here, at least 15 years ago.

by Anonymous

reply 5

12/02/2017

I've known about this since the earl 80s.

He likes 'em young, male, and black.

by Anonymous

reply 6

12/02/2017

[quote]“I began seeing a 41-year-old man when I was 15,

So romantic!

Call me by your name!

by Anonymous

reply 7

12/02/2017

Can't we just take a pass on pursuing this one, Captain Obvious? If he's not dead as I type this, then he will be soon enough.

by Anonymous

reply 8

12/02/2017

r8 It's not just him, though, but those who enabled him as well. It's hard to imagine that Joe Volpe did not know, and yet did nothing.

by Anonymous

reply 9

12/02/2017

This will be the end of the Met.

by Anonymous

reply 10

12/02/2017

Didn't Leonard Bernstein do the same thing? I know, I know, maybe it's just me... but I think it's more embarrassing than criminal to be such a perv. But of course, I was never the victim of sexual harassment, and I just imagine that my response would be more likely to be laughter than anything else. I just assumed nobody groped me because I just wasn't pretty enough.

by Anonymous

reply 12

12/02/2017

James Levine is so cute. How could women resist?

by Anonymous

reply 13

12/02/2017

Don't tell us Arthur Fiedler did this too. There's a Fiedler foot bridge over Storrow Drive near the Esplanade in Boston. We can't take it down.

by Anonymous

reply 15

12/02/2017

This has been a long time coming.

by Anonymous

reply 16

12/02/2017

His name was brought up in this thread

by Anonymous

reply 17

12/02/2017

He's an extraordinary operatic conductor.

I forgive him

by Anonymous

reply 18

12/02/2017

He’s a criminal.

by Anonymous

reply 19

12/02/2017

R11 Another mentally-challenged racist gentile.

R14 What's "wrong" with them is that they are high-achieving in entertainment, moron. That's why you're hearing about so many of them in this story.

by Anonymous

reply 20

12/02/2017

I unchecked his Mahler years ago.

by Anonymous

reply 21

12/02/2017

He's a lover!

by Anonymous

reply 22

12/02/2017

STRIP him of his BATON!!

by Anonymous

reply 24

12/02/2017

There a wonderful thing called logic, R23, but I'm not sure your stunted brain-stem can handle it.

by Anonymous

reply 25

12/02/2017

Do all these rich guys like Weinstein have a clause in their contracts that allow them to engage in sex harassment/abuse as long as they can keep their victims quiet?

by Anonymous

reply 27

12/02/2017

My god, would you anti-Semites shut the fuck up? You think the reason they do this is because they're Jewish?

They're pedophiles, you Nazis. One thing has nothing to do with the other.

by Anonymous

reply 28

12/02/2017

Stick your head in the sand, r28.

by Anonymous

reply 29

12/02/2017

He borrowed that wretched wig from Phil Specter.

by Anonymous

reply 30

12/02/2017

So you're saying Roy Moore and Donald Trump are Jewish?

You anti-semites sure love the selective memory stuff.

by Anonymous

reply 31

12/02/2017

We've known about this for years, really.

by Anonymous

reply 32

12/02/2017

I'll give him a standing ovation. Just tell me when and where.

by Anonymous

reply 33

12/02/2017

He looks lie a demented Kelsey Grammer.

by Anonymous

reply 34

12/02/2017

Isn't that redundant?

by Anonymous

reply 35

12/02/2017

Lots of people at the Met must have known about this and dismissed it as irrelevant because he was such a "great artist." Repellant.

by Anonymous

reply 36

12/02/2017

[quote]I was not aroused as I never was during my relationship with him as I am a heterosexual individual.

Poor guy, but did he really think he'd have been aroused even if he was a gay individual? Look at the man.

by Anonymous

reply 37

12/02/2017

Instead of [italic]Dido and Aeneas,[/italic] he can conduct [italic]Dildo and Anus.[/italic]

by Anonymous

reply 39

12/02/2017

Another beauty!!!

by Anonymous

reply 40

12/02/2017

The Times has it.

by Anonymous

reply 41

12/02/2017

R41: I like how the Met admitted that they knew about the police complaint but meekly accepted Levine's word that it was "completely false" and did nothing. Now, of course, that it's all been made public they are going to investigate . . .

by Anonymous

reply 42

12/02/2017

True, R42. A silly statement for them to make if more people start to come forward with allegations.

by Anonymous

reply 43

12/02/2017

If the Times is running with it, is he done?

by Anonymous

reply 44

12/02/2017

I first heard the stories about Levine and his taste for young licorice back in the 1970s. The other story I heard often was that several years ago, the GM, don't know whether it was Volpe or Gelb or even someone in the 1980s, called Levine into his office and formally informed him that the Board had had enough and would never help cover for him again and he had better clean up his act. He pretty much did so and his severe health problems of the past few years have probably forced him to curtail his activities anyway.

It's all just gossip and rumor but I heard the gist of it so often from people would who know that I accepted the stories.

And no, this does NOT excuse the stories if they are true but he is indeed a genius conductor who has given me worlds of pleasure over the decades. The problem with his artistic legacy, apart from separating it from his personal behavior, is that his recordings by and large suck but what happens in the house when he conducts is mesmerizing.

by Anonymous

reply 45

12/02/2017

I think that the NYTimes was always the Met's firewall: as long as the stories about Levine never made it to the paper of record, they could always be dismissed as "just rumors." Now that the wall has been breached, it may be finished for him.

I'm not sure that I buy Levine as a "genius" conductor--and I say that as someone who has heard him live many times. There were always stories that he kept other, better conductors from appearing at the Met so that they wouldn't show him up.

by Anonymous

reply 46

12/02/2017

There goes the gala money from a farewell concert!

by Anonymous

reply 47

12/02/2017

R46, it makes sense that he blocked other better conductors.

Look at people like Matt Laurer and Charlie Rose. No way were they representative of top talent. They're just good at clawing their way to the top. They're predators. It comes naturally to them!

by Anonymous

reply 48

12/02/2017

Someone who looks like Larry Fine should be allowed to do anything they want. He's suffered enough.

by Anonymous

reply 49

12/02/2017

He’ll be gone by Monday. And Gelb will be gone shortly thereafter. He basically admitted to a cover up. Fucking fool. Volpe and Jonathan Friend have a lot to answer for too. And that wretched fucking board. Ronald Wilford is lucky he’s dead, otherwise this would kill him.

by Anonymous

reply 50

12/02/2017

“The alleged victim informed a former Met Opera board member of the alleged abuse in 2016 and she alerted the Met’s general manager, yet Levine continued to wield his baton.”

by Anonymous

reply 51

12/02/2017

Datalounge was right about this guy

by Anonymous

reply 52

12/02/2017

One can hear many exciting live opera recordings with great conducting and none of them include Levine.

That being said I don't know, since his sexually predatory nature being known in the classical world from even well before Volpe, how the Times can justify itself for not investigating this along with the Met's decades long cover-up previously. Everybody in the Times classical division knew about it because it was talked about everywhere down to the clerks in music stores and customers. Even to call it an open secret would be misleading.

Decades ago someone told me the Met had called him for a donation and he told the volunteer(I assume) that he was not going to give the Met blackmail money to pay off Levine's victims.

The Met should take a very big hit to its prestige with this one. Levine has been the face of the Met for decades which in and of itself was insane considering his nasty behavior not only with children but with casting male singers and it can ill afford it under the disastrous reign of Peter Gelb.

And the Times was leading the way. As soon as the ink hit the page the paper was good for nothing more than fish wrapping.

by Anonymous

reply 53

12/02/2017

[quote]One can hear many exciting live opera recordings with great conducting and none of them include Levine.

To say nothing of Mahler recordings.

by Anonymous

reply 54

12/02/2017

Didn't Levine also have a bf, a black tenor named Philip Creech years ago? Also, wasn't K. Battle reputed to have sometimes gotten some of these kids for Levine?

by Anonymous

reply 55

12/02/2017

Curly from the Three Stooges became an opera conductor?

by Anonymous

reply 56

12/02/2017

R55 She did? I find that hard to believe. If she did she is a complete fucking cunt.

by Anonymous

reply 57

12/02/2017

This is an atomic bomb in the classical world, especially opera. Everyone at the Met is in a total panic. There are also rumblings about a Placido Domingo profile in the works at a major publication, and about David Geffen across the plaza at the Philharmonc. If Domingo goes down at the same time as Levine, it would be catastrophic for opera.

The mood is very, very ugly at Lincoln Center.

by Anonymous

reply 58

12/02/2017

This is unbelievable - NOT the perversion and subsequent cover-up - but the fact that it finally is being rightly reported.

It is like the whole world is a living Datalounge post!

However if Gelb gets bounced that would be DELIGHTFUL.

by Anonymous

reply 59

12/02/2017

Hardly anyone pays attention to the opera world these days. Since they're still the biggest player in the US, they'll be fine if they get rid of the current regime and appoint fresh blood.

by Anonymous

reply 60

12/02/2017

This is hilarious.

It's been going on for decades and suddenly now things are getting ugly.

Good riddance to all these wretched people.

And they weren't very good anyway.

And the NY Phil is a third rate orchestra and deserves Geffen's name on its home.

by Anonymous

reply 61

12/02/2017

This feels reductive.

by Anonymous

reply 62

12/02/2017

Looks like Richard Simmons brother

by Anonymous

reply 63

12/02/2017

So who will the met find to replace Jimmy for the rest of this season? He's set for the new Tosca bowing on New Years Eve and the upcoming revivals of Il Trovatore and Luisa Miller. Ironically this is all coming down when Levine is a bigger part of the schedule in the house than he has been for half a decade or so.

by Anonymous

reply 64

12/02/2017

It's about time!

by Anonymous

reply 65

12/02/2017

Well, Domingo's been reputed to be cheating on his wife for years and years, hitting on multitudes of ladies.

by Anonymous

reply 66

12/02/2017

I heard back in the 80s that he was actually arrested for diddling with a young black boy in the South, somewhere like Nashville, but it was kept hush hush.

by Anonymous

reply 67

12/02/2017

Her hair is NOT laid.

by Anonymous

reply 68

12/02/2017

R67, that's the sort of thing Met management let him know they would no longer help shush up. And he did become somewhat more discreet.

by Anonymous

reply 69

12/02/2017

It's what the Met calls Hush Money.

You don't think you're paying $300 a seat to hear Caruso or Flagstad sing do you?

You're paying $300 to hear a third rate American soprano and a second rate Spanish tenor sing Puccini while half of the price of the ticket to Jimmy's Little Boy's School for Scandal also known as New York's Neverland branch.

by Anonymous

reply 70

12/02/2017

R46 defined this. And as I listened to the Met broadcast this afternoon, conducted by emeritus Levine, I couldn't help but think of the thread referenced above.

And wondering if it would ever hit the mainstream. And now it has. Vive le DL!

by Anonymous

reply 71

12/02/2017

Just bring in Yannick already!

by Anonymous

reply 72

12/02/2017

how can the met justify paying him an annual salary of 1 million+? and that's not to mention the hush money someone downthread mentioned. i think there's a lot of unsavory things going on in the arts, especially among the powerful - like levine - who know they can/could get away with it. i feel for the met musicians/theatre tech people who might be affected by this.

by Anonymous

reply 73

12/02/2017

Fabio Luisi has a big, self-satisfied and well deserved smile on his face tonight.

by Anonymous

reply 74

12/02/2017

It’s a lot worse than “hitting on” R66.

by Anonymous

reply 75

12/03/2017

When will they announce that Jimmy will not be conducting his scheduled performances and will instead seek out a new career as the Madame of a children's brothel?

by Anonymous

reply 76

12/03/2017

Clean out the whole MET leadership, board etc. Start again from scratch.

by Anonymous

reply 77

12/03/2017

Levine probably had more "rumors" surrounding his lengthy history as a sexual predator than anyone else in the classical music industry. The Met's reaction to this is disgusting.

As for the floodgates opening, well, the classical music industry has been decades (if not centuries) behind the times when it comes to art, popular culture, programming, and audience engagement. It's no wonder that they are trailing Hollywood and the business world in dealing with a sexual abuse reckoning.

Levine isn't the first and won't be the last--he's just the first to be exposed. Many, many more will follow and, as a former classical music professional, I look forward to seeing some career predators destroyed and replaced by younger, more morally sound, and more relevant artists.

by Anonymous

reply 78

12/03/2017

All the tweets about Levine are “everybody knew”

by Anonymous

reply 79

12/03/2017

Yeah they really need to get rid of the entire board which knew about this for years, dump Gelb because he took this on knowing what was taking place and take away Volpe's pension for complicity.

And the Times needs to be investigated for not reporting it for years and protecting Levine against all ethical standards of journalism.

by Anonymous

reply 80

12/03/2017

I appreciate these anti-Gelb posts. For years I've thought he's running the Met into the ground with shitty productions, casting, and general management. I guess it's not just me.

by Anonymous

reply 81

12/03/2017

Apparently the accuser kept a contemporaneous diary about his relationship with Levine, which is why his police report was so specific.

by Anonymous

reply 82

12/03/2017

It's beyond laughable that the Met is conducting its own "investigation" into Levine, when the institution has been his enabler for decades. It's a matter for law enforcement.

by Anonymous

reply 83

12/03/2017

A LOT of people will be very happy to see Gelb brought down by this. Even more than Levine.

Not that long ago the board renewed his contract for another 10 years. What the fuck? It sure as hell wasn't for the job he was doing.

What exactly do all these people know about each other? The upper echelons of high culture are swimming with the sharks in a cesspool.

by Anonymous

reply 84

12/03/2017

I completely agree that the Times has been complicit in this garbage. Tomassini and his “strapping baritone” reviews protected the revolting institution of the Met for decades and should be called to account. They ignored or rejected stories repeatedly. Now, they have no choice.

The Met (and many of the other American houses) is a disgusting hellhole filled with predatory straight and gay assholes who take advantage of their power, and those underneath them are treated like shit the moment they walk in the door. Until the entire staff from the top down, (and I include most of Levine’s hellish musical support staff that makes life miserable for singers) and the board is fired and replaced (and good luck with that), nothing will change. It’s an extremely insular place, and since it hides behind a not for profit and donations there isn’t a lot anyone outside can do.

There has to be a major outcry and donors and audience need to disappear. Once the Met is branded as Pedo Opera, I’m fairly sure there will be a severe reckoning.

by Anonymous

reply 85

12/03/2017

Someone from the Met sent this to me:

Dear Members of the Company,

Very disturbing articles are appearing online this evening that report on allegations of a case of sexual misconduct on the part of James Levine in the 1980’s.

This first came to our attention when an Illinois police investigation was opened in October, 2016. At the time, Mr. Levine said that the charges were completely false, and we didn’t hear anything further from the police. We need to determine if these charges are true and, if they are, take appropriate action. We’ll now be conducting our own investigation with outside resources.

Should you receive any direct inquiries from representatives of the press, we would appreciate you not speaking to them, referring them instead to the Met’s press office.

This is an extremely serious situation for the Met, and I wish to express my deep sadness and concern. Please do not hesitate to communicate your own concerns directly to me or your department heads.

Sincerely,

Peter Gelb

by Anonymous

reply 86

12/03/2017

Of course Gelb is trying bully company members into hiding it.

He fucking needs to go. Stupid prick. Fuck him.

by Anonymous

reply 87

12/03/2017

The world of classical music is a sad broken strange place filled with bitter unhappy people who fight over tiny amounts of money. I would be perfectly fine if a knife were put right through the heart of it. It needs to die.

by Anonymous

reply 88

12/03/2017

'Very disturbing articles are appearing online this evening that report on allegations of a case of sexual misconduct on the part of James Levine in the 1980’s. This first came to our attention when an Illinois police investigation was opened in October, 2016.'

Gelb is scum and truly beyond disgusting.

by Anonymous

reply 89

12/03/2017

[quote] Please do not hesitate to communicate your own concerns directly to me or

This is hilarious. 95% of the roster wouldn’t dare go near him. He’s certainly not that kind of approachable executive. He’s not exactly in tyrant mode, but you don’t speak your mind to him if you ever want to work in the business again.

by Anonymous

reply 90

12/03/2017

Well maybe now you can because he's shitting a brick and frightened as a rabbit.

by Anonymous

reply 91

12/03/2017

[quote]Lots of people at the Met must have known about this and dismissed it as irrelevant because he was such a "great artist." Repellant.

According to some posters, he was not that great of an artist. And yes, [bold]all[/bold] of the people (including the Board, performers, staff, subscribers, and the media) who aided, abetted, and covered for him are as absolutely repellent as he. Mandated reporting of shit like this ought to be mandatory in all fields, and not just medical and social services (not that it is any great shakes there).

[quote]I first heard the stories about Levine and his taste for young licorice back in the 1970s.

This tedious bullshit again. I doubt that had his victims been white, you would have called them “young vanilla”. Fuck off.

[quote]i feel for the met musicians/theatre tech people who might be affected by this.

I feel for the victims. Imagine that. The musicians and theatre tech people ought to have reported him.

R53’s post (and others) is yet another example of the world being full of enablers and people who have zero fucks to give as long whatever is happening does not impact them – particularly, if it concerns those “other” people.

[quote] Clean out the whole MET leadership, board etc. Start again from scratch.

This.

by Anonymous

reply 92

12/03/2017

What does any conductor, including James Levine, do that justifies such a salary and such a cover-up? I'm serious. On what is his reputation based? I'm not a complete musical ignoramus, but I've never played in an orchestra and it seems to me that the musicians are the ones who do all the work. Yes, you need someone capable at the helm to bring it all together, but is there really room for "genius" to make a difference?

This is not a "what does a conductor do?" post, but a "what does a conductor do that justifies such veneration?" post.

by Anonymous

reply 93

12/03/2017

The fact is that a lot of brilliant people are morally corrupt. Go ahead, purge the arts of the creeps, and then wonder where the talent went.

by Anonymous

reply 94

12/03/2017

I think Levine sounds like he's a good conductor for one reason alone: his tempi are consistently slow. Slow tempi make orchestral textures clearer. They make it seem like the orchestra is producing sounds you've never noticed before. They make it seem like he's bringing out things in the score that other conductors never have before. Slow tempi also tend to make a score grander, and that is almost always appropriate in a house as large as the Met.

Another conductor who tends toward slow tempi but is actually a good conductor is Daniel Barenboim. They're both renowned for their Wagner, so that's a good place to start for comparisons. Whereas Levine's Wagner is just plain slow, Barenboim's is rich with emotion, it never plods so that it loses the sense of storytelling, it always keeps us aware of the big picture. The last point is crucial, because the big picture in Wagner is big.

Gelb should be made to step down in light of the Levine revelations. Heck, he should be made to step down for commissioning the Lepage Ring.

by Anonymous

reply 95

12/03/2017

[quote]The fact is that a lot of brilliant people are morally corrupt. Go ahead, purge the arts of the creeps, and then wonder where the talent went.

For every brilliant conductor who gets a long career there are ten equally brilliant conductors waiting to replace him.

by Anonymous

reply 96

12/03/2017

Thanks, R95. I never thought about it, but it is true about a slower tempo encouraging you to hear things more fully and credit it to the conductor/musicians.

I do prefer solo instrumental music to be played at a tempo at which I can discern most individual notes, with certain exceptions like Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu and some of Debussy's piano works. (They're a beautiful blur.) But now I recognize that it's true for symphonic works, too.

by Anonymous

reply 97

12/03/2017

[quote]The world of classical music is a sad broken strange place filled with bitter unhappy people who fight over tiny amounts of money. I would be perfectly fine if a knife were put right through the heart of it. It needs to die.

[quote]Well maybe now you can because he's shitting a brick and frightened as a rabbit.

No. I've seen executives in this mode. They do this "come speak to me" garbage for compliance reasons, so they can issue a statement that says they are investigating the matter. They don't want to know. They don't want to know because then they would have to deal with the matter and possibly take action that would affect profitability. And if you do approach them, they get even more rabid, as if it's you that actually did the molesting by "hiding" it from them. Never trust anyone in the workplace that says "Come to me and let's talk about it." You'll find your words twisted and used against you.

by Anonymous

reply 99

12/03/2017

Thanks, r97, but don't take my word for it. I'm sure there are others who will disagree.

by Anonymous

reply 100

12/03/2017

For those who are saying the entire board, management staff and creatives should be fired, exactly how do think think that would be done? Who would fire the board and the management team?

by Anonymous

reply 101

12/03/2017

I don't know abut the tempo comments. Solti's Wagner and Strauss recordings from the 60s are still some of he clearest to me, instrumentation-wise, and he certainly wasn't one for broad tempi. Thank god Bernstein never specialized in real opera.

by Anonymous

reply 102

12/03/2017

r102 The point I was trying to make is that slow tempi make orchestral textures clearer, not the contrapositive that fast tempi make them muddier. I wholeheartedly agree with you on Solti.

by Anonymous

reply 103

12/03/2017

Stop discussing fucking tempi. This is not about that.

by Anonymous

reply 104

12/03/2017

I wish I had some pun about music and sexual assault, in order to segue back to the topic at hand.

by Anonymous

reply 105

12/03/2017

That's why I worked Broadway, because I didn't want creepy James Levine strumming my banjo.

by Anonymous

reply 106

12/03/2017

How long would Bernstein have lasted in this climate? And don't even mention Sondheim...

by Anonymous

reply 107

12/03/2017

Sondheim had better hope his nose is clean.

by Anonymous

reply 108

12/03/2017

[quote]Sondheim had better hope his nose is clean.

And his hose.

by Anonymous

reply 109

12/03/2017

They'll leave Sondheim alone because he's old and decrepit. Nobody wants to see a 100 year old man go through all of that.

by Anonymous

reply 110

12/03/2017

Fuck anyone going after a young kid and leading them on for your own pleasure. Fuck him.

by Anonymous

reply 111

12/03/2017

Well this is gross. I'm going through my iTunes and removing any Levine. Bye bye.

by Anonymous

reply 112

12/03/2017

And James Levine, with his surgeries and Parkinsons, is to you not "old and decrepit," r110? Not defending his sex actions, but if he's not "old and decrepit," well...

by Anonymous

reply 113

12/03/2017

[quote]I'm going through my iTunes and removing any Levine.

I unchecked mine. All I have is his Mahler.

by Anonymous

reply 114

12/03/2017

I will regret the Otello, but there are others.

by Anonymous

reply 115

12/03/2017

I had a lover for a few months how was a conductor at the Met Opera. He was In his mid-20s and bloody roux in coloring. He was a genius, very nice fellow. He had an ENORMOUS cock, huge huge huge. I can't remember his name, anyone?? Late 80s? Or was It the early 90s?

by Anonymous

reply 116

12/03/2017

blond-roux not bloody. ew.

by Anonymous

reply 117

12/03/2017

Had an apartment on West End Avenue....It was a loaner. Didn't Levine live on West End.

by Anonymous

reply 118

12/03/2017

Oh, please! It was a fucking honor for those kids to give a bit of pleasure to a great artist of James Levine's caliber. Left untainted by a homophobic society, those moments would go down as the best in those kids' lives.

Vissi d'arte! Vissi d'amore!

by Anonymous

reply 119

12/03/2017

nah. Sounds like Levine was quite secretive and manipulative. This isn't the 19th Century and Levine didn't delight and charm the parents and get permission to perve on their son. His MO sounds super sleazy, and totally lacking in class.

by Anonymous

reply 120

12/03/2017

Yet, with the case in Lake Forest, IL, the vic stayed in a relationship with Levine for years after reaching the age of consent. How bad could it have been if he let it go on that long, and as well, gotten $50,000 from Levine over the years?

by Anonymous

reply 121

12/03/2017

Yeah but Levine groomed that kid from infancy. Its a pretty dark story.

by Anonymous

reply 122

12/03/2017

"Infancy"? I thought he was 15.

by Anonymous

reply 123

12/03/2017

Aren't Renata Scotto and Kathleen Battle part of this story as well? What about Matthew Epstein? All had ties to Levine - hell, everyone at the Met had ties to him, but those were among the bigger players, besides the managers Gelb and Volpe.

Some long-time ushers at the Met called Levine "Piggy" behind his back and characterized his conducting as "loud" and "slow", not "brilliant". Apparently things were very tense around him and the Met when Carlos Kleiber was conducting. Levine got very concerned when really good conductors were brought in; lots of people think Levine did what he could to keep some of the best conductors away from the Met so he wouldn't face comparison in the house.

by Anonymous

reply 124

12/03/2017

R123, Levine met his accuser when the accuser was 4, and from age 4 through 10 Levine sent him messages and gifts.

by Anonymous

reply 125

12/03/2017

[quote]I wish I had some pun about music and sexual assault, in order to segue back to the topic at hand.

You could say, "Give it a rest."' or "When we say Levine's beat was too fast, we weren't discussing his tempi." or "When Levine presented his penis, he would get off at the sight of the young man's semi-quaver."

by Anonymous

reply 126

12/03/2017

Dear Jimmy...please bring back my bath towel, you fat sack of shit 😉

by Anonymous

reply 127

12/03/2017

A Met chorister once told me that Levine had on some occasions tried to linger by the men chorus' changing room/showers. Maybe looking to upgrade to one-liner or more solos in the opera? Hmm, that naked guy would be perfect for a run as Parpignol!

by Anonymous

reply 128

12/03/2017

Has Jessye Norman weighed in yet from Ow-Gust-Tah?

by Anonymous

reply 129

12/03/2017

Thank you, R125. I did not know it went back that far.

by Anonymous

reply 130

12/03/2017

Levine is sick. The rumors about him liking younger guys were always in the 15-16 age, which is bad enough, but he set his sights on this kid at age FOUR.

I have long wanted Gelb canned for his artistic choices, but all of his work to cover up for Levine is reason enough to get the boot as well.

It's time to clean house. It won't just be a good thing for ethical and moral reasons, but artistically too.

by Anonymous

reply 131

12/03/2017

People thought Levine was a great conductor because it was pounded into them by a huge PR machine led by the Times. My friends and I could never figure it out.

It's like why Gelb is being kept on by the Met.

The Fucking NY Times that's why.

One hand soils the other.

The rats as big as possums are not in the NY subway. They're crawling all over NY's temple to culture.

There are no great singers. Balanchine is dead. And the NY Phil is New York's village band. Luxury condos in place of Lincoln Center would at least bring in tax revenue and if you want great dancing and music there are always City Center and Carnegie Hall.

Compared to what it once was is Lincoln Center is now a white elephant.

Unless of course if you like monuments dedicated to the Koch Bros and David Geffen.

by Anonymous

reply 132

12/03/2017

[quote]I have long wanted Gelb canned for his artistic choices, but all of his work to cover up for Levine is reason enough to get the boot as well.

At first read, I thought you said "caned," not "canned."

by Anonymous

reply 133

12/03/2017

As someone who has been involved in the opera world off and on for nearly 40 years, what's shocking about this weekend's revelations is that they weren't revealed 20 or 30 years ago. As the tide turned with the Weinstein tidal wave a month or so ago I thought to myself Levine will go down soon too. Both have been the source of industry gossip for decades. We used to joke about Phillip "Screech" (Creech as the real last name), a marginally talented but attractive young African-American tenor who was supposedly propped up by Levine and cast in numerous supporting roles because he was putting out for the maestro.

by Anonymous

reply 134

12/03/2017

[quote]Unless of course if you like monuments dedicated to the Koch Bros and David Geffen.

Reason enough to never attend an event at Lincoln Center. It's funded by ghouls.

by Anonymous

reply 135

12/03/2017

Back in the 1980s, the late Liz Smith outed the entire situation with much detail in one of her most famous columns. She stopped just short of naming names but everyone knew who she was talking about. Nothing was done, of course.

by Anonymous

reply 136

12/03/2017

And that is 30 years ago!

In the corporate world he would have been out the door so fast it would have made your head spin.

by Anonymous

reply 137

12/03/2017

Spill, r75. I haven't followed Domingo news in years, since he's so far past his prime.

What are the stories about him?

by Anonymous

reply 138

12/03/2017

He might be well past his prime r138, but the major opera houses do back flips to cast him vocally inappropriate old man baritone roles. He's in his mid seventies (and is perhaps even older than that) when most tenors are reduced to the Emperor in Turandot. He still sells tickets, and there are currently no superstar Verdi baritones, so the Met, Vienna and Covent Garden cast him instead of real Verdi baritones like Quinn Kelsey. That said, he has always had the rep of being a bit of a lech. Not as bad as Pavarotti - but he's had his share of inappropriate gropes, fondles and hook-ups. His wife is the de facto CEO of Placido Inc. and has always tuned a blind eye. She let him mess around and he handed her directing & PR gigs for which she was supremely unqualified.

by Anonymous

reply 139

12/03/2017

[quote]Curly from the Three Stooges became an opera conductor?

You are a chowderhead!

Dear Lord, have you NEVER seen The Three Stooges? Curly had a shaved head, and of course the curly-headed Stooge was Larry! Larry Fine, aka Porcupine, who was also a fine violin player.

by Anonymous

reply 140

12/03/2017

Jesus Christ, this has been around for so long it actually was a Law & Order: SVU episode.

by Anonymous

reply 141

12/03/2017

R116, can you remember any of the operas your former love conducted? The full performance records of the Met are online, and we could narrow it down that way.

by Anonymous

reply 142

12/03/2017

If I can be excused for a minor tangent, does anyone know who Tatiana Troyanos's girlfriend (or any of her girlfriends) was/were?

Thank you, A lesbian

by Anonymous

reply 143

12/03/2017

[quote] Yeah they really need to get rid of the entire board...

But where will their big money donations come from if not the current board? The Met chairlady donated $30 million to sit on the board. How many people do you know that are lounging around with $30 million to give to a non-profit institution?

by Anonymous

reply 144

12/03/2017

*Years* ago an article in People said Levine was '...said to have the sexual appetite of a jackrabbit. 'I worked for their parent company -- their legal department would never have allowed that to go to print without backup.

by Anonymous

reply 145

12/03/2017

Who knew jackrabbits are into underage black men?

The local evening news here in the city is reporting the story but making it sound like it involved one guy 30 years and Met management is shocked, shocked that their is gambling in its establishment.

by Anonymous

reply 146

12/03/2017

^ there is, not their. Sorry.

by Anonymous

reply 147

12/03/2017

r115 Chung's Otello is at least as good, also with Domingo, this time mature and burnished.

r124 Levine couldn't hold a candle to Kleiber. Not many could.

r129 Jessye weighed in, but not about Levine. Nyuk, nyuk.

Have there actually been rumours about Sondheim, particularly regarding underage boys? I realize he probably had already written Sweeney Todd before Romley was born, but I've never heard about anything illegal.

by Anonymous

reply 148

12/03/2017

R58 please keep us updated if you have the inside scoop.

by Anonymous

reply 149

12/03/2017

I never heard of anything underage about Sondheim -- just rough sex and S/M and a certain chair/dungeon supposedly in his home. I heard this years ago, like early 80s. Apparently Victor Garber was a bf.

by Anonymous

reply 150

12/03/2017

Look at how hot he is, he must get tons of young tail

by Anonymous

reply 151

12/03/2017

NBC News just covered the story and like the local news, implied it involved one teenager 30 years. But they did mention that the rumors were covered in a 2001 biography and had Gelb lying through his teeth saying that The Met had never heard a word about anything until late last year when they were contacted by the police but they did nothing when the police never got back to them and Levine denied everything when asked.

by Anonymous

reply 152

12/03/2017

The rumors about Sondheim usually involve the dungeon in his basement. None of the townhouses on that block have basements.

by Anonymous

reply 153

12/03/2017

This from a DL thread about Liz Smith earlier this year. I've been searching for that column but can't find it anywhere.

[quote]She once had a long column which went into detail, without naming him, about a very famous musical person in NY who had continuing trouble and had been paid of by his institution for being arrested for very, um, inappropriate behavior with young black boys. It was very clear who she was talking about.

Most of the replies suggest Bernstein, but one person correctly said, maybe, but if she wrote it in the 80s, it was about Levine. I never heard rumors about the Philharmonic having to cover up for Lenny.

by Anonymous

reply 154

12/03/2017

Cunt Anne Midgette was just on the NBC Nightly News as some sort of commentator. Ironic, considering she was part of The NY Times machine that kept him in power for years.

by Anonymous

reply 155

12/03/2017

VENGENCE !

by Anonymous

reply 156

12/03/2017

For some reason I can't link to it, but the NY Times has posted a copy of a January 1979 letter written by Anthony Bliss, the then-executive director of the Met's Board of Directors, to another Board member. The second Board member had received an anonymous letter making accusations against Levine. The letter from Bliss establishes that rumors of "criminal activities" of a sexual nature by Levine were already circulating back then, and that the Board was dismissing them.

by Anonymous

reply 157

12/03/2017

Letter re: levine

by Anonymous

reply 158

12/03/2017

Yeah, I posted way back in the thread that I first the rumors in the '70s and even the NBC piece on tonight's evening news said a 2001 book said that they went back that far.

by Anonymous

reply 159

12/03/2017

What interested me was that the Times posted that letter without editorial comment. I assume that they are preparing a story that will throw the Met's management under the bus.

by Anonymous

reply 160

12/03/2017

Here's the NYT story.

by Anonymous

reply 161

12/03/2017

[quote]Chris Brown, who played principal bass in the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for more than three decades, said that Mr. Levine masturbated him that summer — and then coaxed him to reciprocate — when Mr. Brown was 17 at the Meadow Brook School of Music in Michigan, where Mr. Levine was a 25-year-old rising star on the summer program’s faculty. James Lestock said that Mr. Levine also masturbated him there that summer when Mr. Lestock was a 17-year-old cello student — the first of many sexual encounters with Mr. Levine that have haunted him. And Ashok Pai, who grew up in Illinois near the Ravinia Festival, where Mr. Levine was music director, said that he was sexually abused by Mr. Levine starting in the summer of 1986, when Mr. Pai was 16 — an accusation he made last year in a report to the Lake Forest Police Department in Illinois.

How twisted.

by Anonymous

reply 162

12/03/2017

In the early '70s an opera queen I knew, who was in the company, told me stories of Levine's troubles when on tour. All knew his troubles with the police and his taste for young black boys.

by Anonymous

reply 163

12/03/2017

DLers claimed he used to go cruising at playland arcade

by Anonymous

reply 164

12/03/2017

Gelb and the board must be very scared to have suspended him after turning a blind eye for so many years. And blind eye is even unfair as the Met would actively pay off the boys to keep them quiet.

by Anonymous

reply 165

12/03/2017

This is the gayest thread ever.

by Anonymous

reply 166

12/03/2017

Well I never enjoyed Domingo even as a tenor. He had a one size fits all blustering voice. He became boring real fast. But the women moistened their seats over him(this might be literally true unless it is a Met urban legend spread by ushers) but he didn't lech after underage girls as far as I've heard.

The monkey house incident with Caruso is one of opera's great anecdotes but again it involved an adult woman and took place in a zoo.

by Anonymous

reply 167

12/03/2017

This White Male Privilege Purge is starting to get boring, can we space the career annihiliations out just a bit?

by Anonymous

reply 168

12/03/2017

Keep 'em coming!

by Anonymous

reply 169

12/03/2017

Met insiders: talk to us.

by Anonymous

reply 170

12/03/2017

Better news would be that Peter is being terminated. He's been covering Jimmy's lard ass ever since he started.

by Anonymous

reply 171

12/03/2017

Wow, as I posted above, I've been aware of these stories since the 1970s and of the complicity of both The Met and The Times in covering for him. Today's piece in The Times is devastating, even quoting victims going back to the 1960s. I never thought I'd live to see this.

Jimmy, thinks for all those magnificent nights in the House (the naysayers about his conducting ability are weird or ... well, just wrong) but the piper is finally, justly going to be paid.

by Anonymous

reply 172

12/03/2017

I forgot to mention that I hate Gelb more than any of you but he did inherit a 40 year old scandal when he came onboard. Doesn't excuse ten years of destroying over 100 years of artistic excellence.

by Anonymous

reply 173

12/03/2017

He's been suspended by the Met

by Anonymous

reply 174

12/03/2017

Oops sorry I didn't see the prior post

by Anonymous

reply 175

12/03/2017

R173, why do hate him more than us? Use generalities if you must, but give us the gist.

by Anonymous

reply 176

12/03/2017

He took on a scandal knowing full well its depth and scope.

In other words he holds full responsibility.

Burn him.

Well not literally but you know what I mean.

by Anonymous

reply 177

12/03/2017

"I doubt that had his victims been white, you would have called them “young vanilla”. Fuck off."

Calm down bitch, aka r91, we would have called them "twinks", as in Twinkees, ok bitch.

by Anonymous

reply 178

12/03/2017

Why do you think the NY Times is doing this after so many years of covering it up? Were they forced into it or do they see a chance to get more readers?

by Anonymous

reply 179

12/03/2017

This will be the end of the Met. It’s over. And good riddance.

by Anonymous

reply 180

12/03/2017

Sorry R91, I love your post.

Of course, r92 is the bitch.

by Anonymous

reply 181

12/03/2017

[quote]This will be the end of the Met. It’s over. And good riddance.

What does this mean? A restructuring with all new leadership, or gutting Lincoln Center and burning it to the ground?

by Anonymous

reply 182

12/03/2017

R179, to get more readers by protecting a creepy old perv in an art form that's been shrinking since the 90s?

It feels good to laugh again.

by Anonymous

reply 183

12/03/2017

R182, that was over-dramatic flair. The board will stay because they are rich. Gelb and Levine will go. People will take their places.

by Anonymous

reply 184

12/03/2017

The Met as it currently exists will cease to be. The donors will disappear. It has always been financially teetering, this will topple it. It will lose the house, and the house will be empty other than the ballet season. Hundreds will lose their jobs.

by Anonymous

reply 185

12/03/2017

'I will conduct in the ashes of the Met.'

Toscanini's response when asked if he would ever return after his tenure there.

Looks like he's due for his comeback.

by Anonymous

reply 186

12/03/2017

I completely disagree R184. I work at the house. You have no idea what this means. They’ve been covering for him for fifty years. The donors will rightfully flee. Sandusky almost singlehandedly brought down Penn State. This is on a much more dramatic scale. This will finish off the company which has always financially faltered. Look no further than NYCO to see how quickly it can happen. The Met is not too big too fail. No one cares about the arts, and certainly not opera, and major donors do not want to have their names connected to this disgusting fiasco. The Met is finished.

by Anonymous

reply 187

12/03/2017

Toscanini was an old lech (with the ladies) as well. Like, even when he was aged and in compression stockings.

by Anonymous

reply 188

12/03/2017

Yeah with the ladies.

Not with children.

by Anonymous

reply 189

12/03/2017

"Why do you think the NY Times is doing this after so many years of covering it up?"

Just because they didn't report on it, doesn't mean they deliberately covered up. Maybe no one was willing to come forward on the record. It takes many victims years to come forward.

by Anonymous

reply 190

12/03/2017

R187 I love the Met, and your posting made me incredibly sad

by Anonymous

reply 191

12/03/2017

The NY Times covered it up. Period. End of story.

Gelb will NEVER last his contract - he has a certain Jared Kushner-like persona that makes me loathe him.

As long as that "strapping baritone" admired Anthony Tomassini gets dumped as well, that is enough for me as well.

by Anonymous

reply 192

12/03/2017

You loved it from the front of house R191. The arts, and the classical arts, and the Met especially is a twisted fucked up place behind the scenes filled with abusive shitty people and people who allow the abusive shitty people to exist just so they can get a chance to sing on a stage for ten minutes and collect their crappy fees. I’ve been doing this for almost four decades now, and I’m really coming to regret it.

by Anonymous

reply 193

12/03/2017

Someone posted a picture on one of threads of Nathan Gunn, not looking like he did when Anthony Tomassini would instantly give him a rave review.

by Anonymous

reply 194

12/03/2017

But NYCO always had like a little sister place in NY opera. I don't agree that this will finish the Met. I think they'll just have a total management shuffle. Because if the Met disappears, what happens to big opera goers in NYC. I'm sure there's a feeling that it MUST be saved--among people with the finanacial oomph to make that happen--as opposed to the NYC.

You just wait. They'll hire a WOMAN to replace Gelb---maybe even my favorite woman in the universe!--she'll fire everyone's ass, and the donors will come back.

by Anonymous

reply 195

12/03/2017

R190 OK, they ignored it. Which was very convenient for them.

NY Times=Paterno

Met=Sandusky

by Anonymous

reply 196

12/03/2017

AGMA's website has no updates. AuditionUpdate is down. Some postings on parterre box. All That Chat has some posts. BroadwayWorld some as well. Anyone else covering this in terms of chat boards?

by Anonymous

reply 197

12/03/2017

Yet, the President Tramp is still in office.

This is why all of these folks are coming light.."

by Anonymous

reply 198

12/03/2017

Here is what's important (I took this from the NYTimes two years ago)--

"The Met's endowment was valued at $253 million at the end of last year — less than its operating expenses that year, which were $327 million."

They will have to trim costs enormously, but they will still be okay. The NYCO spent all the money in their endowment in betting on the stock market (with abysmally stupid results).

by Anonymous

reply 199

12/03/2017

"The NY Times covered it up. Period. End of story."

If they were so interested in covering up for him, they wouldn't be doing this story now.

"OK, they ignored it. Which was very convenient for them."

Not going forward with a story because you don't have adequate sources is not the same thing as ignoring it. The comparison to Paterno is pretty lame, Paterno didn't write an article exposing Jerry Sandusky as a predator.

by Anonymous

reply 200

12/03/2017

"If they were so interested in covering up for him, they wouldn't be doing this story now."

Are you kidding me? How can they ignore the story? - Though they are trying, by shoving it into a one inch square box on the first page and having the story inside the paper.

by Anonymous

reply 201

12/03/2017

I believe you, R193. And it just proves that what we see isn't always what is. Thank you for your insights

by Anonymous

reply 202

12/03/2017

And this is the big time seasonal push! The radio broadcasts just started, the theatre presentations (off-site) always draw, and of course Tosca for New Year's Eve, which I would love to attend.

What will they do?

by Anonymous

reply 203

12/03/2017

The story is now leading the local 11 pm news here in New York And even though they mention there are now 3 accusers, they are still trying to pass it all off as something that happened 30 or 40 years ago. No mention that it started 50 years ago and continued for decades or anything about the cover ups or Gelb's idiotic claims that The Met knew nothing about it until late last year..

by Anonymous

reply 204

12/03/2017

Am I the only lifelong New Yorker here?

It is not just Gelb and his New York Times connection.

How could Volpe not have known all about it.................Oh wait, wasn't Volpe's good friend opera buff Mayor Rudolph Giuliani? Think about it people. Talk about being connected to power........

by Anonymous

reply 205

12/03/2017

and as far as the Times :

" Were they forced into it or do they see a chance to get more readers? "

Media is as complicit and must appear to be "breaking news"

Just Watch what will happen wth NBC in the next couple of weeks!

None of this is real.

its all----

by Anonymous

reply 206

12/03/2017

Ok Dumbo R200 there were plenty of sources. They just conveniently ignored them because it would have not served their purposes to pursue them. They had a vested interest in keeping things mum.

Paterno ignored what Sandusky was doing because it would have been inconvenient to confront him and it would have hurt both of them.

The Times ignored what the Met was doing because they did not want any confrontation that would have hurt both of them.

They are reporting it now only because everyone has been falling like dominoes and they don't want to look like they're doing nothing but standing around scratching their balls.

Have you been reading this thread? Have you not seen that Liz Smith reported it 30 years ago? Have you not seen that people in the classical music world have been discussing it for 40?

by Anonymous

reply 207

12/03/2017

BYE Bitch. He's gone. Fired.

by Anonymous

reply 208

12/03/2017

Gurl!?!

by Anonymous

reply 209

12/03/2017

[quote]BYE Bitch. He's gone. Fired.

And he is (well officially suspended according to the NYT). All of his remaining performances this season switched to "TBA" sometime this evening. It looks like yesterday afternoon's Verdi requiem was his Met farewell. Quite fitting.

by Anonymous

reply 210

12/03/2017

[quote]If I can be excused for a minor tangent, does anyone know who Tatiana Troyanos's girlfriend (or any of her girlfriends) was/were?

I was in regular contact with Troyanos from the early 80's until her untimely death in 1993. If she was a lesbian, she never acknowledged it. She sometimes claimed to have a "gentleman friend" but was usually gender neutral when discussing her private life for the most part. What I can guarantee is that she suffered from horrendous stage fright, and was a world class hypochondriac. She was always terrified she would be forgotten and have to return to the horrible poverty of her childhood. I'm sure she would be thrilled that many who considered her a house mezzo/Levine pet in her prime have come to appreciate her gifts since her passing. She had a one of a kind voice and unrivaled dramatic conviction.

by Anonymous

reply 211

12/03/2017

R211, thank you so much for answering my post! I absolutely idolized her--her voice, her stage presence, everything. I think I've watched my "making of" West Side Story DVD too many times to count. (And so heartbreaking beautiful as Venus, in her stocking feet.) I loved her.

I didn't know she came from terrible poverty: it's amazing to me that in the not-so-distant past, artists could have big careers even if they started out in life without so much money. I really don't think the same can happen today.

Well, how fortunate for her to have had a friend like you to tell people how wonderful she was. Thank you again for writing.

by Anonymous

reply 212

12/03/2017

Troyanos as the composer in Ariadne is one of my most cherished memories. Norman and the insane Battle in the same production were unidiomatic and not quite right yet wonderful but Troyanos was particularly special.

by Anonymous

reply 213

12/03/2017

I’ve seen DL talk about this for years! Wasn’t there a blind item about a singer procuring young men for him?

You guys are smart. DL is so often proved right.

by Anonymous

reply 214

12/03/2017

[quote]You guys are smart. DL is so often proved right.

When there are thousands of unfounded accusations made on this board every week, there is bound to be something right every once in a while. I wouldn't give DL that much credit.

by Anonymous

reply 215

12/03/2017

I love the Met and have spent many a wonderful evening there hearing great singing. I hope it survives and thrives. I think they'll get someone like Renee Fleming to be the new face of the Met.

by Anonymous

reply 216

12/03/2017

R211, might you know if someone is writing a biography about TT, or doing like oral history interviews with her friends--perhaps to be released at a later date?

R213, me too.

My favorite below. Also, she was in this like televised, very old fashioned version of Oedipus Rex as Jocasta, and now I can't fricking find it anywhere. (Many years ago, I had borrowed it on VHS from the library.)

by Anonymous

reply 217

12/03/2017

Fleming had a lovely voice in the Mozart/Stauss rep years ago but as her reputation grew, so did her ego and her misguided belief in her own artistic sensibilities, which are crude. Search for her appalling rendition of Over the Rainbow. I have little interest in seeing the new Carousel partly due her participation in a role for which Rodgers himself refused to allow anyone except a trained mezzo or contralto with good acting abilities. A soprano with laughable pretensions to good acting would have repulsed him.

by Anonymous

reply 218

12/03/2017

For those of you wondering why the New York Times spent decades covering up for Levine: well, the fact that Peter Gelb's daddy is Arthur Gelb just might have something to do with it. Arthur Gelb was a career Timesman and held many powerful positions there, including managing editor.

by Anonymous

reply 219

12/04/2017

The New York Times was covering up for Levine long before Peter Gelb. How far back does this go? Schuyler Chapin? Anthony Bliss? Joe Volpe, definitely.

by Anonymous

reply 220

12/04/2017

Even in Mozart/Strauss, I feel her strengths are limited. She was a fine Contessa/Marschallin. Arabella, I'm told. That's about it. Her Countess (Capriccio), broadcast on Live at the Met, was laughable. What passed for acting was running the back of her hand down her cheek. Over and over and over again.

She also inhales really loud, which one would barely notice live but is incredibly annoying on recordings. (She and that other one, Anna Netrebko.)

I doubt that she would know how to select/commission new productions, manage a large organization day to day, etc. She'd be good at fundraising, just because of her name.

Check out her Björk, r218!

by Anonymous

reply 221

12/04/2017

Oh, yeah, I was talking about Renée Fleming.

by Anonymous

reply 222

12/04/2017

OMG, r219, I can't believe I totally forgot that in my several posts above.

Gelb was hired for his marketing abilities, which are considerable, and in that respect, he was sort of a success. But it was a disaster to give him any kind of artistic control, much less putting him in total charge.

The Met might survive this. But it survives financially year to year by a thread and I am horrified to contemplate it might not.

R220, you posted while I was typing. Chapin, Bliss and Volpe definitely knew but I can't remember which one finally called him in, speaking for the Board, that he had better clean up his act because they weren't going to cover for him ever again. He did become much more discreet at that point, as I posted above.

And then he started his various health problems, which curtailed him anyway. He has severe spinal problems that put him in a wheelchair and now Parkinson's, which have lead to very recent orchestra complaints they can no longer follow his beat in any way. And these are all among the best orchestral musicians in the world.

To backtrack a little, this hasn't been mentioned: When Levine took over the musical direction at the Met in the very early '70s, both the chorus and orchestra were very mediocre, run of the mill, opera house concerns. Under his supervision and ......

Um, sorry, I'm sorry, falling asleep and have to crawl to bed. The story is now prominent on local early morning news and getting more honest, finally admitting that the stories go back to the 1960s and involve multiple accusers but they are still promoting The Met's version that they never heard anything about it until last winter and had nothing to follow up on. Like I said, Gelb is a brilliant and convincing marketer who needs to die in Hell.

night.....

by Anonymous

reply 223

12/04/2017

[quote] When Levine took over the musical direction at the Met in the very early '70s, both the chorus and orchestra were very mediocre, run of the mill, opera house concerns. Under his supervision and ......

But wasn't Bing the first one to actually give them professional salaries? I thought they had made a lot of progress under him.

by Anonymous

reply 224

12/04/2017

R187, saying that this will bring down the Met is being overly-dramatic. Even if 3-4 heads role, the institution will continue. And while Sandusky was a disgusting blight on Penn State's athletic program, the continued existence of the university was never really in question.

by Anonymous

reply 225

12/04/2017

R225 is right. And not only was Penn State's existence as a university not in question, but the football program was never going away either, and it hasn't. In fact, they were often ranked in the top 25 teams this season. I think people/donors will be able to separate the institution of The Met with Levine/those who covered things up, as long as those offending parties are removed posthaste.

The best way to make the public forget about the scandal is to program some knockout upcoming seasons with a few exciting new productions involving first-rate singers. Easier said than done, I know, but get us talking about the music again and we'll be able to move on from this. The Met has had a very lackluster decade, artistically speaking, and if they can bring in someone who rights that ship The Met will be just fine.

by Anonymous

reply 226

12/04/2017

Gelb also deaccessioned most of the works of art and memorabilia from the Metropolitan Opera Guild at Christies (for rock-bottom prices) to pay for his projects and the bloated salaries for his favorites like Dodie Kazanjian, (Mrs. Calvin Tomkins) , who runs the worthless Gallery Met featuring hideous contemporary art.

And that new Ring cycle, supposedly costing $13 - $18 million? Double that sum (for starters). millions down the toilet. Gelb lies to his board of idiots about the costs and success of his pet projects and they lap jt up. None of them question him.

by Anonymous

reply 227

12/04/2017

*roll

by Anonymous

reply 228

12/04/2017

I think comparing one of the countries top universities in terms of popularity and a hugely successful college football team to the Met which has been suffering a slow death for the last 10 years due to its disastrous director's complete lack of talent for producing, his effortless ability to estrange the press and public and the dwindling interest in opera is misguided.

Well before this happened a friend of mind who is an opera critic and been going since the 60s noted he had never seen so many empty seats and when ovations used to go on for 1/2 hour to 45 minutes because the audience was out of its mind now the opera ends, a few minute of applause and out the door.

Just the fact that a city as large and rich financially and culturally as NY cannot afford a second smaller professional company which it desperately needs (at least for the opera lover left who want to see smaller works, in a smaller house in regular seasons) is very telling.

There are still many rich people who will prop up the Met because it gives them a chance to show off their wealth and chat with other wealthy acquaintances for not longer than they want to but as a thriving artistic center attracting the world's best talent especially when that talent is more scarce than ever it seems for a while now those days are over. And you do not need to set Faust in a nuclear reactor or Rosenkavalier in a whorehouse for these works to have in brain-damaged Gelb's head 'traction.'

And Renee sing My Man's Gone Now in a Fledermaus gala and her masturbation with a rose in the Capriccio from hell are two of the most embarrassing things I've seen on the Met stage.

by Anonymous

reply 229

12/04/2017

Gelb also wanted to sell the two glorious Chagall's that you see through the windows in the front of the house.

The Chagall estate had to explain to Mr Brilliant they were gifts and could not be sold.

I wouldn't be surprised if Mr Brilliant hoped to make a nice commission fee for brokering the sale.

by Anonymous

reply 230

12/04/2017

[quote]Gelb also deaccessioned most of the works of art and memorabilia from the Metropolitan Opera Guild

Did we really need "deaccession" as a word?

by Anonymous

reply 231

12/04/2017

Chagall (and Mozart) at the Met:

by Anonymous

reply 232

12/04/2017

[quote] and her masturbation with a rose in the Capriccio from hell are two of the most embarrassing things I've seen on the Met stage.

That production made me HATE Renee, not to mention the singing was appalling. I haven’t been to hear her since.

The damage to the house can’t be understated. The rich donors will abandon. This is a huge ugly scandal. No one wants to be connected to a pedophile. No one. Certainly not Ann Bass and her ilk. The Met cannot survive by tickets, it barely sells 58% of its house, and those numbers are inflated by Gelb. I doubt the house will survive, but if it does, it won’t be in its current form, and will have a reduced chorus and orchestra, and the backstage and front of house staff will be eviscerated (which would be fine since its ridiculously over staffed). They have maybe enough in their endowment for two seasons with low donations and tickets. After that it’s game over.

by Anonymous

reply 233

12/04/2017

Can’t Beverly Sills once again take the reins. I think she’s the only person that can save it.

by Anonymous

reply 234

12/04/2017

That would be a miracle, considering she's been dead for 10 years.

by Anonymous

reply 235

12/04/2017

Rich showoffs and fashionistas have other venues and causes like the Metropolitan Museum of Art if they decide the Met is ovah.

It wouldn't be a bad thing if the Met got a complete gutting from top to bottom and operated on a reduced schedule, one opera at a time, like most houses do in Europe and North America.

And it needs a Maggie Thatcher to smash its unions.

by Anonymous

reply 236

12/04/2017

r229 r233 OK, great, I'm glad I'm not the only one who hated that Capriccio.

When all this is over, have an All-Star Gala Concert to Exorcise the Met of the Sploogy Ghost of James Levine. Bring in Leontyne Fucking Price to say a few words. Or sing Pace, Pace if she still has it. ("Ma chi giunge? Chi profanare ardisce il sacro loco? Maledizione! Maledizione! Maledizione!")

Any ideas for who should sing what?

by Anonymous

reply 237

12/04/2017

It will be a long time before PETER GRIMES or THE TURN OF THE SCREW or DEATH IN VENICE are mounted at the Met.

by Anonymous

reply 238

12/04/2017

Benjamin Britten is really someone who needs to have his legacy re-examined, and I admire a lot of his work and enjoy singing it.

by Anonymous

reply 239

12/04/2017

As I said, it’s looking like the end of the Met. And I’m not the only one who thinks it.

by Anonymous

reply 240

12/04/2017

"Ok Dumbo R200 there were plenty of sources."

Dumbo, just because there are victims doesn't mean they were willing to go on the record AT THE TIME.

"Have you not seen that Liz Smith reported it 30 years ago?"

That was a blind item, retard. You don't need legit sources for blind items. No one was willing to call him out BY NAME.

by Anonymous

reply 241

12/04/2017

Listen clown the first allegation was found in a Met letter from Anthony Bliss in the 70s who then squashed it as a rumor. Levine denied it and that was good enough for Bliss.

Rumor:The Met was bribing parents.

Everyone knew the very mediocre young African American Creech had a career because he was sleeping with Levine.

Also everyone knew that Levine was jailed in Italy for abuse of a minor.

OK this was a rumor: Scotto got him out of jail there which gave her a flourishing career at the Met.

This is true: Scotto's voice was in tatters. Rumor: the audiences revolted saying we can't listen to her anymore. Forget gala prices for opening nights.

Was there a generous payout? I don't know. What is fact is that is that she was singing a lot in terrible voice then suddenly nothing.

Gelb has been intimately involved with the world of classical music for many decades. I worked for Sony. He was my boss. People who knew about classical music there(including trained musicians) loathed him. And they talked there about Jimmy's involvement with minors. Sadly it was a running joke. I am not making this up.

Is saying he heard nothing about this behavior at all until Nov '16 to you honorable professional behavior?

Was he supposed to molest a kid in the office of the managing editor of the Times before anyone was going to investigate the matter?

Why the Met has the easy potential to collapse. A well thought out article.

People are seriously deluded if they think this can’t happen. The Met can’t afford lawsuits. Not just one. ANY. And there will likely be multiple. No one will give to an institution fighting off lawsuits because its leader for forty years was a known pedophile.

Also, major film studios are collapsing because of current scandals. The Met is nothing comparatively.

by Anonymous

reply 244

12/04/2017

Britten should have his legacy examined? We should also look into Wagner. I hear he didn’t like Jews. Why have all these opera companies been protecting Wagner and Britten for all these years?

by Anonymous

reply 245

12/04/2017

Like R5, I first heard about him here. Long time ago.

by Anonymous

reply 246

12/04/2017

It's terrible that Wagner and Britten are working for opera companies and doing all types of nefarious deeds right under their very noses.

by Anonymous

reply 247

12/04/2017

Wagner was jealous of Meyerbeer, a Jewish composer who was more popular and kind of the Andrew Lloyd Webber of his time.

by Anonymous

reply 248

12/04/2017

Ain't no pedos in Wagner. And that's why some Britten works are radioactive at the Met for a while.

by Anonymous

reply 249

12/04/2017

Forgot to link the Salon article above.

Yes, Britten’s reputation for the desire of young boys should be examined. The Brits have avoided it for fifty years.

by Anonymous

reply 250

12/04/2017

Of course the Met will survive. To thick otherwise is foolish. Everyone knew for years Levine was, is, a big fairy. He took the house orchestra and turned it into one world class. He cannot be faulted for his musical ability and accomplishment. His sex life? Well … different story, the Met bailed him out with the police for years, the top man will be held accountable for that. Both Levine and Gelb could lose their jobs, no payoffs. Someone should tear through the house and reduce all salaries 10% to 15%. I mean, $800 per pair for SHOES in a CHORUS? No matter what dick-sucking has gone on in the past, is going on now, the actual work in an opera will not change, the Tosca's and Boheme's will sell out, the new works could, but can be an easily ticket. Yannick Nézet-Séguin will do well. The lights will go on, the heat too, the Met will survive.

by Anonymous

reply 251

12/04/2017

[quote]Probably Creech too, but I don't think I've ever heard him.

Even those of who regularly saw him in the house rarely did. Yet somehow he was a regular, if minor, presence in the house for more than a decade.

by Anonymous

reply 252

12/04/2017

And now Peter Martins, head of NYC Ballet, is accused.....

by Anonymous

reply 253

12/04/2017

But the Met survives because of donations and gifts. Didn't they also encourage people to leave them money in their wills?

Now it will come out that Met money has been used to pay Levine's victims and with upcoming lawsuits possibly in the works why would anybody give them any more?

by Anonymous

reply 254

12/04/2017

Completely believe the accusations about Martins. He was dating Darci Kistler (his wife) when she was a teenager and he was in his 30s. He was also arrested for domestic violence. Notorious as a womanizer. Doesn't come off well in Gelsey Kirkland's memoir--cold-blooded, self-absorbed womanizing asshole.

Of course, George Balanchine was notorious for going after his young ballerinas, Martins kept up the tradition, but without the genius.

by Anonymous

reply 255

12/04/2017

You’re incredibly naive R251. Opera will go on, just not at the Met in its current form.

by Anonymous

reply 256

12/04/2017

Wagner didn't like Jews because of people like James Levine, Harvey Weinstein, and Bernie Madoff.

You bigots are big on selective memory. Predatory assholes come in all creeds and colors.

by Anonymous

reply 258

12/04/2017

This is some good gossip. I'd be a jealous bitch if it weren't for the anti-Semitic cuntescence.

by Anonymous

reply 259

12/04/2017

r258 Jews are 1.5% of the population. Congrats on finding a few examples that are NOT Jewish.

Just proves Wagner's point, and mine.

by Anonymous

reply 260

12/04/2017

Think about all the talented composers and conductors that get screwed out of opportunities because of people like Levine.

Jewish money men hire fellow Jews like Gelb, and make sure Jews like Levine are glorified, protected, and promoted. It's one big supremacist tribal circle jerk.

And Wagner was one of those goys who got shut out by this primitive tribal mafia, so he knew all about it.

by Anonymous

reply 261

12/04/2017

"Glorified, protected, and promoted". That applies to people like Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose, too.

by Anonymous

reply 262

12/04/2017

"Wagner didn't like Jews because of people like James Levine, Harvey Weinstein, and Bernie Madoff."

You're an idiot. What do those three men have in common? They're Jewish. So your insightful statement becomes the very enlightening "Wagner didn't like Jews because they were Jews." Which is just what we'd expect a Nazi sympathizer to say.

by Anonymous

reply 263

12/04/2017

Jews are 100% consistent in their tribal warfare, theft, and exclusion.

African American composer William Grant Still:

In “Fifty Years of Progress in Music,” a 1952 essay, Still claimed:“It is a fact that there is in New York a powerful clique of white composers who exclude all others, white as well as colored… . It is interesting to know that Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, the leaders of the clique, were also publicized in Life magazine’s April 4, 1949, issue, in an expose of ‘Dupes and Fellow Travelers.’ The connection is all too obvious! Having refused to follow Leftist doctrines, certain colored and white composers have been opposed by this clique for many years. Among other things, the door to adequate recordings of our music—always a sore spot—has been closed to us. Thus the New York clique had made a totally unnecessary obstacle for many of us—an obstacle that has wider implications than the merely racial or personal.”At the height of the McCarthy era, under no subpoena, Still voluntarily branded rival composers as Communists

by Anonymous

reply 264

12/04/2017

No, because we're not talking about the general population, but men in politics and entertainment, different set of percentages.

You're just a bigot who filters information to affirm your bigotry. Dumb, too.

by Anonymous

reply 265

12/04/2017

r265 you're an anti-Gentile bigot, just like your ancestors. That's how you avoided assimilating into the goyishe masses for 2000 years.

by Anonymous

reply 266

12/04/2017

r265 pretends it's pure coincidence and meritocracy that our 1.5% Jewish population just so happens to dominate Hollywood, media, publishing, finance, and politics.

And it's just a pure coincidence that all these serial sex predators in the J mafia just so happened to be protected by a sophisticated network of Jewish enablers.

by Anonymous

reply 267

12/04/2017

Too bad I'm a WASP with Puritan ancestors, R266--I just recognize anti-semitism when I see it.

Try seeing individuals as such instead of smearing entire groups of people. You'll be a better person, cuz right now, you're repellent scuz.

Merry Christmas.

by Anonymous

reply 268

12/04/2017

What you queens are too politically correct to admit to yourselves is that the same tribal network that protected Levine will continue to protect itself and it's members.

They'll find some other creepy Jew to glorify as a fake genius, while systematically holding down talented Gentiles.

It's all about the Chosen Ones and their confirmation bias that Jews are more talented, and even more moral.

Never underestimate the power of Jewish narcissism.

by Anonymous

reply 269

12/04/2017

Don’t engage with trolls; they ruin threads.

by Anonymous

reply 270

12/04/2017

r268 you blindly assume that everybody else is as individualistic as yourself. Even as Jews proudly call themselves The Tribe, you project your own individualism onto narrow tribalists.

Just because it feels good to see the best in everybody, doesn't mean your views have anything at all to do with reality.

Our 1.5% Jewish population didn't come to dominate the US by way of rugged individualism. They did it through the systematic monopolization of entire industries, with a single-minded collective identity and purpose.

by Anonymous

reply 271

12/04/2017

Just looked up James Levine to see what he looked like younger and he's just as fug and gross as I suspected he would be.

Please, and I say this with love, stat marrying and converting more shiskas and get that hideous, troll-like Weinstein and Levine physical type out of your DNA. once and for all.

We need more HOT,ADORABLE Jews that look like James Wolk, Dan Futterman and Ari Melber.

by Anonymous

reply 272

12/04/2017

This huge anti semite R271 leaves out the fact that the biggest richest predatory pedophile organization is Italian Catholic Fairies led by His Holiness.

Talk about protecting their own.

by Anonymous

reply 273

12/04/2017

Yes, I just decided to block the anti-Semite trash, and this thread looks a lot better. However, I think that a certain amount of visible pushback is necessary. Otherwise Jewish people are going to read these threads, think no one's on their side, and won't feel welcome here.

by Anonymous

reply 274

12/04/2017

[quote] They did it through the systematic monopolization of entire industries, with a single-minded collective identity and purpose.

Yeah, like ANY other group wouldn't do the same given the intellect and drive for success. It's called survival of the fittest and Jews just happen to have a natural brain advantage.

by Anonymous

reply 275

12/04/2017

r273 the Vatican is in bed with the Jews, which is why our Weinstein-style main stream media kept the Vatican pedoplilia secret for so long.

The Catholic rank and file had to stand up to the Catholic Church on their own.

by Anonymous

reply 276

12/04/2017

The jealousy and resentment for Jewish success is strong on this thread.

by Anonymous

reply 277

12/04/2017

r275 When non-Jews work together and act tribally you Jews condemn them as Nazis, because you don't want any other groups acting exactly like Jews act.

Thanks for admitting that the US and Europe are stupid for not embracing white nationalism and working together to take back their own countries.

by Anonymous

reply 278

12/04/2017

r277 is a classic Jewish narcissist. Like all narcissists, he can't fathom that anybody would have justified grievances against the Chosen Ones.

r277 thinks Levine was a case of meritocracy and individual talent, rather than a group conspiracy to elevate an inferior Jew into a position of prominence.

by Anonymous

reply 279

12/04/2017

Levine is so repulsive I think it's time to post a pic of a HOT, gay, Jewish conductor. Cleanse the palette, as it were.

by Anonymous

reply 280

12/04/2017

r275 thinks it is morally superior to support Jewish ethnic nationalism, but morally inferior to support white ethnic nationalism.

Levine was not only physically inferior and repulsive, but he was also socially inferior, and psychologically inferior as well. Not to mention a run of the mill talent as a conductor.

But grow his hair out a little, and give him the most prominent post in classical music, and suddenly the Jews are able to convince themselves that Levine's a genius, and an example of Jewish superiority.

Pathetic.

by Anonymous

reply 283

12/04/2017

My goodness, but what a vile and pathetic individual you are, R283.

by Anonymous

reply 284

12/04/2017

People begrudge Jews their achievement but I say to you:

Go out, CREATE a new industry or financial system, do it better than anyone else and then hire and promote only people from your OWN tribe. Stop complaining and acting as if something is OWED you.

I think the problem is that the people complaining don't have the BRAINS, TALENT or DRIVE to do something big and important...are are bitterly resentful of those who can.

by Anonymous

reply 285

12/04/2017

Do you know any Italian Catholics? I do. I grew up with them.

They're fucking psychos.

Make them homosexual as well and you've got a Molotov cocktail of catastrophic proportions.

And the jews don't even begin to enter into it.

Irish catholic=white trash. Give them money and they start fucking everything in sight and end up producing Kennedys like rabbits at Easter.

I wouldn't trust a catholic any farther than I could throw him or her.

by Anonymous

reply 286

12/04/2017

Notice how Weinstein Brothers were just about the only Hollywood studio who made Oscar-bait films.

The other Jews stuck to trash films to dumb down the Goyishe masses, while Harvey Weinstein bought up all the good scripts and even produced a few.

Then they try to convince the Goyim that Weinstein was a genius, because his movies weren't superhero trash.

And all the Jews patted themselves on the back for being just like Weinstein, the great auteur.

by Anonymous

reply 287

12/04/2017

r285 Jews would just swoop in with their money and buy up the new industry/field.

That's what they did with the once great Ivy League schools, and that's what they did with the Metropolitan Opera, and everything else they touch.

by Anonymous

reply 288

12/04/2017

I'd kill myself if that vile looking creature tried to mount me.

by Anonymous

reply 289

12/04/2017

Like the Jews or Asians, if you have a culture that puts a premium on education, hard work, drive, business success, status and wealth, and an extended family or community that aids in that endeavor, then you're going to have individuals that EXCEL and DOMINATE. Sorry.

However,If you have a culture that is happy if you just move out of the house at 18, get married, have some kids and have a job that pays enough so they don't have to support you then you're probably just going to get MEDIOCRITY.

And that's fine, just stop BITCHING about it. If you don't like it start CHANGING your culture starting with YOU.

by Anonymous

reply 290

12/04/2017

The Jews did it with the tech industry too. The Winklevoss twins were ripped off by the creepy Jew Zuckerberg who was already in hot water for being a sexual creep on campus, and the Jewish Harvard president Larry Summers protected and promoted Zuckerberg and the facebook project.

Now the Jews pat themselves on the back for Zuckerberg's "accomplishment", which in reality was nothing more than a tribal conspiracy of coercion and theft.

Even Albert Einstein was a fraud, and pagiarized his most famous ideas. The only reason he came to the US was because all of Europe knew he was an imposter, and the scientific community in Europe completely ostracized him.

He comes to the US and the Jewish media tells the public Einstein's a great genius, and that you don't have to be a Harvey Weinstein to figure that out.

by Anonymous

reply 291

12/04/2017

[quote]Notice how Weinstein Brothers were just about the only Hollywood studio who made Oscar-bait films.

The Jews CREATED Hollywood.....what the fuck do you expect?

by Anonymous

reply 292

12/04/2017

R211, I thought Troyanos was a rather aggressive lesbian when it came to procuring lovers

by Anonymous

reply 293

12/04/2017

Troyanos was a dull dependable house singer except when she wasn't. Then she could be dazzling.

by Anonymous

reply 294

12/04/2017

So going by the logic of some of the comments on this thread any goyim, black or other cultural group was PREVENTED from being a Spielberg, a Max Born, a Carl Ichan, an Irving Berlin or George Gershwin because of some vast, shady Jewish network of nepotism that, despite having world-class talent and ability, DESTROYED any chance of those groups' success.

Sounds plausible.

Reminds me of the line from "Rose's Turn" in "Gypsy": (written by two Jewish men who only got there because a more talented WASP who had a better musical wasn't given the opportunity)

Either you HAVE it......

or you've HAD it!

by Anonymous

reply 295

12/04/2017

Did Rose McGowan intend all along to bring down the Metropolitan Opera?

All I can say is girl you done good.

by Anonymous

reply 296

12/04/2017

People just don't understand inter-generational love!!

by Anonymous

reply 297

12/04/2017

This is why I hate us.

by Anonymous

reply 298

12/04/2017

Will the anti-Semitism troll please go away?

by Anonymous

reply 299

12/04/2017

Ignore the anti-Semites. Responding to them is what they want.

by Anonymous

reply 300

12/04/2017

Can we get back to opera, the Met, singers, or arts funding please?

by Anonymous

reply 301

12/04/2017

Does anyone know why Tatiana Troyanos chose to live with Levine instead of a female roommate (or partner or something)?

(Perhaps friend of TT can come back to thread?)

Thanks

by Anonymous

reply 302

12/04/2017

1) Why did Peter Gelb sit on the police report for a solid *year* before taking action against Levine? Gelb deserves to go down for that alone, and I hope he takes the entire board down with him.

2) Where the hell was the New York press on this story? These stories have been around for years yet the New York press--most notably, the New York Times, but also the New Yorker, New York magazine, and all the rest--has done little other than blow wet kisses to the guy. Though at least the New Yorker's Alex Ross had the grace to apologize (see the link).

It's worth pointing out that it was the New York Post, not the New York Times, that finally broke this story, and also that the the initial story the Times ran soft-pedaled the abuse by going light on the details. Its subsequent story was much better, though.

Also, contrary to what's been implied, Levine still hasn't been fired. He's merely been suspended pending the results of a just-launched investigation. There's no word about whether he's still being paid but I assume he is.

Last but not least, there is now a fourth accuser to add to the pile (see the latest story in the Times). There will be more.

by Anonymous

reply 303

12/04/2017

Alex Ross is a dumb prick. His writing has always been pointless, nonsensical, and irrelevant. I avoid him like then plague. No shock that he was dead wrong on this. He has a completely tin ear as far as music and the industry is concerned. If this shakes out all the shit in the business including ending the careers of most of the current critics and the arts division at the Times, we’d all be better for it. The business needs this purge, pretty much across the board. And take the hopeless fucking unions with it too.

by Anonymous

reply 304

12/04/2017

From Forbes:

[quote] If the latter is the case, much of the blame rests on us: On everyone who didn’t ask the tough question facing a rumor. On everyone who knew something – but didn’t intervene. On everyone who allowed victims to think that this was sort-of normal and par for the course. And on everyone who allowed perpetrators to never have to hear a proper, definite “No”. That, after all, is the perfidious aspect of the various gray areas to the left and the right of abuse: That a vast power differential exists, which obfuscates lines of conduct through enabled delusion on the part of the perpetrator and also due to a victim’s (involuntary?) self-censorship. Victims being awe-struck, transfixed, shocked, paralyzed, and suffering from “deer-in-the-headlights” syndrome, will often allow those who take advantage of them to do so with little to no awareness of their transgression. Those who overstep their boundaries do not have to pick up on signals they don’t anticipate and which are not sent. Predatory narcissism feeds on silence.

by Anonymous

reply 305

12/05/2017

I think the Russian Mafia has a "dossier" on Levine. That would explain the infestation of shitty Russian singers we've had to endure for the past fifteen years or so.

by Anonymous

reply 306

12/05/2017

The most powerful men and women in NY and therefore the world for some reason which even Our Creator is baffled by decided that Levine was one of the greatest conductors to come down the pike since Furtwangler and Toscanini which shows their lack of musical discernment is in direct proportion to their wealth and power.

They decreed that Levine was untouchable(a man of such gifts can do anything the fuck he wants unless he has even more interesting stories to tell about his mentors and benefactors) and I have no doubt they told the press hands off. Even if somebody had wanted to do a story at the Times they were told to mind their own business.

This is a Times scandal of major proportions in and of itself going back to allegations since the 70s. Even the bullshit responses from its staff, nobody knew anything until 2016 and no formal allegations were made, they were just rumors for 50 years, 50 years! (gee nobody thought that was odd since everyone in the business knew and everyone was talking about it?) are all bullshit. This is a major journalistic embarrassment and is enough with which to put the Times through the meatgrinder for. Clearly they put their mouth where the money is.

And why now all of a sudden? After Weinstein et al? If these other men hadn't fallen you think the Times would have come clean? Absolutely not. And this comes out literally immediately(that fucking evening) after the run of the Requiems. Even the Post story was conveniently timed which then forced the Times hand. Oh please let us have all the Requiems so not one is cancelled! Think of the money not the children!

Gelb is a white collar gangster. And Joe the carpenter was up to his armpits in mob shit and used these connections to save Jimmy's fat dimpled ass a thousand times. A carpenter with no education, no musical training and no experience in theatrical management let alone running a musical institution is GM of the Metropolitan Opera?

If the Met falls and now with its donations about to drop precipitously(I want to donate my money to the victims of Met criminal behavior) I wouldn't say that's impossible. I would say that if opera which is on life support anyway(choruses taking dumps on stage, baritones hired for their willingness to get undressed for gay opera directors who want to make Tommasini cream in his seat and display their prize heifers at the Lincoln Center State Fair) should have its plug pulled.

by Anonymous

reply 307

12/05/2017

r306 Ugh. Gergiev and his ilk, while he was principal guest conductor. I cannot fathom the adulation around this poseur.

by Anonymous

reply 308

12/05/2017

😱oh 😨 my 😤 God😡 !

So many emptions , IDK what to feel.

by Anonymous

reply 309

12/05/2017

[quote]choruses taking dumps on stage

Whaaaaaaat???

by Anonymous

reply 310

12/05/2017

r306 R308, I threw out my Gergiev and Anna Netrebko CDs long ago, before the Cheetocracy was even spoken of (anywhere but Russia, at least). No friend of Putin is a friend of anything but evil.

by Anonymous

reply 311

12/05/2017

Your post is brilliant R307, and dead on. I completely agree with you, and I have a singing career to protect.

by Anonymous

reply 312

12/05/2017

Bravo, R307! And speaking of the NY Times, I recently submitted an online comment to one of their Levine stories. In my comment, I asked why the NYT took so long to do a story on Levine (when it was such an open secret for decades) and wondered whether Peter Gelb's being the son of Arthur Gelb, the former NYT managing editor, might have anything to do with that glaring lapse in journalism. My submission was deleted by TPTB, so it appears that the NYT is not quite ready to take a hard look at itself just yet.

So I withdraw my assessment and declare him an unmedicated anti-Semite.

by Anonymous

reply 316

12/05/2017

In any case, r316, I block him.

by Anonymous

reply 317

12/05/2017

He raves like Matt and Matt is a lot of things but anti-Semite isn't one of them.

by Anonymous

reply 318

12/05/2017

Entertainment and the arts were one of the few industries where Jews were allowed. In the beginning of Hollywood, the whole industry was looked on with disdain. Like Jews were. And why there are so many in banking. Christians looked down on the lenders. So that is why there are many in the industry. So blame discrimination. As far as what is going on now, that has to do with power and from what therapists are saying is an innate insecurity even from men who appear to come off as confident.

by Anonymous

reply 319

12/05/2017

[quote]It's called survival of the fittest and Jews just happen to have a natural brain advantage.

But don't you white people claim to be smarter than blacks or we Jews will label you racists!

by Anonymous

reply 320

12/05/2017

R313- Just because there are rumors doesn't mean a newspaper has to investigate and report in them.

There has to be some compelling evidence, like more than one person, unrelated to each other, making the same accusations publicly. They usually have to go on the record, which many of Levine's accusers likely didn't want to until now.

by Anonymous

reply 321

12/05/2017

R307 oh please. Stop the holier than thou shit.

OF COURSE the MET was going to cover for Levine. Levine was their cash cow and IS a brilliant conductor. It's no different from the GOP protecting Trump and Moore. No one gives a shit about abused kids. Look at the Catholic Church getting away completely after being complicit for decades and thousands of kids affected.

Sure the MET directors have to deal with the mob.. So does the director of EVERY arts organization in NYC. EVERY SINGLE ONE.

While I think what Levine did was reprehensible (and you imagine having to have sex with that?), I also realize there is no good to trying to erase his memory, as if he didn't do so much to improve the artform.

by Anonymous

reply 322

12/05/2017

R321, I disagree with you. When the rumors are rampant, as it was in this case, I think it is the media's job to investigate and do some reporting. I don't think journalists should sit and wait until a story is handled to them on a silver platter.

by Anonymous

reply 323

12/05/2017

I have no idea what you're talking R322.

What did I say that was holier than thou shit?

YOU think he was a brilliant director. Not everybody did. His mystique was inscrutable.

I was in the music distribution many years from record store clerk to a major corporation. I talked with many many people both in the business and customers and we talked recordings all day long and what excited us.

Never never never, did I say never?, was James Levine ever mentioned as a great conductor nor did anyone ever mention a recording of his that someone should listen to.

People didn't even say as one person here did well you have to hear him live. Never.

He and his proclivities were a big industry joke. But to listeners and collectors he was nonexistent.

And he did so much to improve the art form? Are you fucking kidding me? It already was a great art form!

And the GOP protects Trump and the Church protects priests so the Met had to protect Levine?

If that's your reasoning nobody can argue with it. It's beyond any kind of sanity.

by Anonymous

reply 324

12/05/2017

I have to amend what I said.

There was one recording-Adriana L.

Ha fucking ha.

by Anonymous

reply 325

12/05/2017

I think you're right, R325. That has to sting.

by Anonymous

reply 326

12/05/2017

Not everyone found him to be a great conductor r324. But it cannot be denied he was a great orchestra builder. When he took over, the Met orchestra played on a level not much better than a 3rd tier American orchestra. At it's peak he built it into not just a great pit band, but one of the world's most renowned orchestras. What he also is (besides being a predatory sex fiend) is a raging narcissist who cannot let go of his fame or power. He and the equally predatory (but heterosexual) operatic egomaniac Placido Domingo don't seem to be able to cope with an opera scene that does not revolve around them. Even without his long hidden predilection for young (and sometimes teen aged) dark meat, Levine should have seen the writing on the wall and bowed out gracefully when the Parkinson's and back issues first began to inhibit his work. Even by then, he had already fallen into a rut of lugubrious tempi in pursuit of texture, color and his idea of the perfect phrase - mixed with ear splitting bombast. As a conductor he actually peaked about 30 years ago (although his skills as an orchestra builder remained). Instead he waged an aggressive campaign, supported by influential board members, to hang on to his power for as long as possible. I think Levine really sees himself as THE MET, and some of those board members did too. We'll see if Yannick Nezet-Seguin and whoever replaces Gelb (who I would guess will be gone by first of the year) can repair the damage.

by Anonymous

reply 327

12/05/2017

The people who thought Levine was a great conductor also thought Amy Schumer was hilarious, and thought that Woody Allen was "brilliant", and thought that Harvey Weinstein was a great intellect.

And then these people would do a little jig around the bagel and count their pennies.

by Anonymous

reply 328

12/05/2017

Exactly r320. And when whites work together for their own selfish benefit it's evil, but when Jews do it it's just being "smart"

by Anonymous

reply 329

12/05/2017

Is that Tommasini article about what he should do with his James Levine recordings from The Onion?

He has been listening to and watching James Levine for forty years knowing full well what was going on but now because common knowledge has been exposed to the public at large he is torn by a moral dilemma?

How in hell do people read the Times with any seriousness?

by Anonymous

reply 330

12/05/2017

Insiders: any ideas on who might be recruited to replace him and Gelb?

by Anonymous

reply 331

12/05/2017

r331 some Jew, no doubt.

by Anonymous

reply 332

12/05/2017

r331, Yannick Nézet-Séguin was picked to replace him in 2020. The decision was made long before the scandal blew up. Canadian, gay, married. Has started to conduct at the Met regularly. Has made some really wonderful recordings, including a Don Giovanni.

I know they had to rid of Gergiev because of his temper and alcoholism.

by Anonymous

reply 334

12/05/2017

Now that it has become common knowledge that Levine's casting couch has seen more traffic than the 1 train does this not make all male musicians hired or promoted by the esteemed conductor so long at his many jobs whether instrumentalist or singers suspect?

by Anonymous

reply 335

12/05/2017

r334 You'd think they would have gotten rid of Gergiev for lack of talent, but whatever.

by Anonymous

reply 336

12/05/2017

Replacing Gelb will be harder. Deborah Borda is probably the most respected arts administrator in the country and could probably right the ship, but she just jumped ship from the LA Phil to the NY Phil this year so another job move is unlikely. Plus she is getting up there in age and has little opera experience. If Gelb goes, the last vestige of the Volpe era - Jonathan Friend (who does most of the casting, and has for decades) needs to go as well. His mentor was Joan Ingpen -who had his job at the Met in the 80's. She pioneered the casting superstars 4-5 years in advance (and the rest by spreadsheet), which lead to the Met's current bloated roster of nobodies. Luisi left r334 because he saw the writing on the wall and knew he would never move into the music director job. Gelb courted Nezet Seguin for a few years believing he could become the Met's Dudamel and reinvigorate the audience base. Luisi's a good conductor, but not star material.

by Anonymous

reply 337

12/05/2017

Probably not, R335. Other than the inexplicable Phillp Creech, Levine's "pets" have been women: Scotto, Troyanos, Battle, Stratas, Voigt, Behrens etc. And based on the revelations so far, most of his predation was aimed at string players.

by Anonymous

reply 338

12/05/2017

Oh Levine has male pets, they’re all just incompetents that sit on the assistant conducting and music staff. Ken Noda, for example.

by Anonymous

reply 339

12/05/2017

There needs to be a house cleaning, top to bottom. Anyone from the Levine era has to go, and that includes Domingo.

by Anonymous

reply 340

12/05/2017

The guy from Verbier that said Levine lost total interest in him when he declined his offer to go to his room with him was a string player.

Said Jimmy wanted to discuss bowing technique.

by Anonymous

reply 341

12/05/2017

Gergiev: no resurrection, please.

by Anonymous

reply 342

12/05/2017

Not to derail the the thread, but I am shocked about something and I must speak...

I thought I recognized the hand of my favorite opera commentator in this thread, and I just found out that he died in September at a relatively young age. Apparently, there was a thread made at the time, but with less than 10 posts. Honestly, I'm in shock. That is all.

by Anonymous

reply 343

12/05/2017

who was it?

by Anonymous

reply 344

12/05/2017

R344, it was Albert Innaurato--holy shit! The man was brilliant. He used to comment here from time to time (and I think more often.) I can't believe he died without a fuss from us. You guys would LOVE his opera gossip.

by Anonymous

reply 345

12/05/2017

I recognize the name. Was he published?

by Anonymous

reply 346

12/05/2017

"Gemini" was his big hit on Broadway -- "take human bites!", "I"m not hungry, I'll just pick" among its quotable lines

by Anonymous

reply 347

12/05/2017

He was really big in day. His Times obit is more informative than his Wikipedia article.

by Anonymous

reply 348

12/05/2017

R346, yes! Goodness, he even won an emmy!

Honestly, I don't know when he went awry, but he didn't really have the career that his talents merited. His "official" writing, unfortunately, was his plays (that are dated), liner notes for opera CDs, articles for Opera News and other newspapers, some libretto work (I think).

But his gossip and opera history stuff, the best of it, is on the internet on Opera-L: he was fierce, incredibly funny, and I told him a few times he should collect his Opera-L posts and publish them in book format, but perhaps he worried that he would be sued?

by Anonymous

reply 349

12/05/2017

what is Opera-L?

by Anonymous

reply 350

12/05/2017

Opera-L is the BEST opera internet forum ever.

I'll post some of his best tomorrow. (I'm working on a deadline at the moment for a story I have to file and just can't til tomorrow.)

by Anonymous

reply 351

12/05/2017

I find that kind of layout so off putting. How do you know what to read? You could spend hours just trying to go through all those posts.

by Anonymous

reply 352

12/05/2017

Oh. Wow. I didn't know Opera-L was still around! I was on the list, receiving all posts as they came in (not just digests!) until around '98. That was when I finished grad school and things got very very busy. Thanks, r351!

by Anonymous

reply 353

12/05/2017

R352, it's me, I'm back again. The thing is that it's like a very old-fashioned listserve, instead of a real forum. The best thing to do is to go to the search button, and search for Albert Innaurato so you can sees his posts. One of the problems is he wrote under his own name, but also an inspired list of elderlady opera singers--for a long time, he was using Emma Albini as his username (and there were others). I will try to go through and post (tomorrow evening or late night) some of his best posts, but this was a guy who knew EVERYONE (conductors, composers, singers, management), loved and collected gossip, spoke several languages, did a huge amount of reading. Really, he should have been a polymath; I don't know what happened to him. (He faced much stigma, I know, for being gay and hefty. Also, he could be sensitive and lost his temper frequently, but he would always stand up for anyone being kicked around (even if he didn't like them); he was a brilliant guy with a sense of fairness.

Shit, I can't believe he's gone.

R353, wasn't it the best? At one time, there was outright war coming to my email box every day! And AI was a big part of it. Thems was the days.

by Anonymous

reply 354

12/05/2017

Gelb whore James Joden wishes he could be Albert.

by Anonymous

reply 355

12/06/2017

Jorden

by Anonymous

reply 356

12/06/2017

Albert was an enormously talented person and raconteur. A far better playwright than McNally but Terrence was more prolific and less irascible.

I knew him briefly and am friends with a close friend of his from days gone by. He unfortunately became a difficult person and estranged many people including his closest friends. I saw this.

I must have seen Gemini 4 or 5 times before I even met him.

We all thought he had a sad ending to a beginning filled with so much promise.

by Anonymous

reply 357

12/06/2017

Albert Innaurato was a BRILLIANT writer, but a huge unbalanced cunt. He had major issues and should have been on serious medication. There was a reason he was in hiding and antisocial. A lot of his diatribes on Opera L and later Parterre we’re barely readable and quite insane. He did have some gossip, but a lot of it was heavily embroidered with his fantasies and fiction. The majority of the people he wrote about kept him at arms length because of his issues. He had a short fecund period where he won accolades, but fell apart shortly after. He was very hard to take seriously.

by Anonymous

reply 358

12/06/2017

I find it extraordinarily ironic that Emmanuel Villaume is taking over Tosca from Levine considering he’s had many of his own issues over the years at Dallas Opera.

by Anonymous

reply 359

12/06/2017

I have to say that this thread has been very informative and educational. I used to have a friend who was quite the opera buff but, unfortunately, he moved cities years ago and we lost contact with each other. Reading this thread brings me back to the long brunches we'd have when he would fill me with all his opera knowledge.

by Anonymous

reply 360

12/06/2017

Bravo R307

by Anonymous

reply 361

12/06/2017

r354 It sure was. It sure was! Jon Alan Conrad, Emma Albini/Albert Innaurato, Bob Rideout, Bob Kosovsky, Ed Rosen, Charlie Handelman, James Jorden, that guy who wrote EMI about how they fucked up the Callas Tosca remaster, that critic from Fanfare who loved Bergonzi. These are all just off the top of my head. Through Opera-L, I met a wonderful lady named Elaine who sold me her ticket to the Met Elisir (Bonney, Alagna, Keenlyside, so dreamy even then) that allowed me to spend a long weekend in NY watching four performances in three days. Carmen (Domingo, Meier), Rigoletto (Swenson--WHET?!, Lopardo), Traviata (Arteta--'member her?, Giordani--sang the cabaletta and then cracked). Back in CA Monday morning to meet with my thesis advisor, heh heh.

Oh, awesome times. Sorry to digress!

by Anonymous

reply 362

12/06/2017

(Swenson--WHET?!......................Oh as I recall she got into a bitch fight with Volpe and that ended her career. She was from the same Long Island town as Rosie O'Donnell and personality-wise, reflected it.

by Anonymous

reply 363

12/06/2017

r363 Did she stop performing at the Met even before her bout with cancer? I just kind of assumed it was the cancer that made her stop, but I don't think she ever returned to the Met after her recovery. So what you're saying makes total sense. I remember her Gilda well. It was pretty much note-perfect, though a bit short on drama.

by Anonymous

reply 364

12/06/2017

Yes, here it is - the fight was with Gelb, not Volpe.

Ruth Ann Swenson performed a few weeks AFTER the chemotherapy! She bitched that Gelb wanted prettier, thinner sopranos - Danielle de Niese and Renee started taking her roles. Gossip forms at the time made her the responsible party for complaining publicly. However in retrospect, she was right.

She must be enjoying this Schadenfreude right now.

by Anonymous

reply 365

12/06/2017

Swenson could be bland. I saw her in Rigoletto be vocally spectacular but dull.

Then I saw her in Manon where she was pretty great. I wouldn't have gone but somebody told me it was a must see. I was incredibly moved. I wish I could remember the tenor. He was wonderful as well.

by Anonymous

reply 366

12/06/2017

r366 Sabbatini?

by Anonymous

reply 367

12/06/2017

As someone who knows someone who knows Swenson, I heard that the words out of her mouth were "Karma!"

by Anonymous

reply 368

12/06/2017

[quote][R344], it was Albert Innaurato--holy shit! The man was brilliant. He used to comment here from time to time (and I think more often.) I can't believe he died without a fuss from us. You guys would LOVE his opera gossip.

He was a regular on the opera website Parterre Box (run by James Jorden aka La Cieca) under the alias Mrs. John Claggart . He knew fucking everything about opera and did not suffer fools kindly. A few times over my years posting on Parterre I was viciously & rather deliciously attacked by him about a post I'd made. Frankly I considered it an honor that he even had given attention to what I had to say. Every regular on the site misses him despite his often surly and tactless takedowns - because usually he was right.

by Anonymous

reply 369

12/06/2017

If Albert liked you he could be charming and warm. But like a true Italian if he thought you had crossed him watch out.

Yes R367 It was Sabbatini. Thank you. A great opera memory.

by Anonymous

reply 370

12/06/2017

Its scandalous the Met has such a paltry endowment.

by Anonymous

reply 371

12/06/2017

Albert was an extraordinary online personality. He loved performing for his audience, and he was alternately adorable and scary. But some of what he said I would take with a pinch, if not a pillar, of salt. I don't know if he ever faked any of his erudition; I do know that he sometimes invented his anecdotes, probably to make it seem that he was more important, more of an insider, than he really had been.

by Anonymous

reply 372

12/06/2017

Yes, like an adored performer on Johnny Carson he did sometimes embroider.

by Anonymous

reply 373

12/06/2017

Yes, r369 describes him like he's the Don Rickles of opera criticism. May both rest in peace.

by Anonymous

reply 374

12/06/2017

R372, I would be interested to know which of his anecdotes you thought he faked. (Even in general terms.)

I always thought of his more as an angry outsider to all the professions that make up opera, but an insider to the culture. He never really penetrated the periphery of the opera world, professionally: he did some conducting, some coaching, some journalism (he complained bitterly, in a circumspect way, about not being hired as a critic at one of the big papers). He seemed to get thrown a lot of bones, in the form of one-off freelance writing jobs, but nothing that got any purchase.

My favorite part of the Albert phenomenon was that he knew all the old, yesteryear Italian ladies (when he would travel to Italy), and would collect their gossip. Also, he many times on Opera-L alluded to writers who would be publishing books soon on some topic (someone's biography of Toscanini or Hoelterhoff's Hitler book), which never actually appeared. (This killed me.) I especially love how devoted he was to listening to recordings from like the 1910s and 1920s, which for me are unendurable, and describing what exactly he heard that was so riveting.

(Tebaldi was kind to him.)

by Anonymous

reply 375

12/06/2017

R369, I missed his Parterre Box years, though I was following him on facebook under his Mrs. John Claggart name. He made me laugh when he used to write things like, "It's ME, a zaftig forgotten WWII soprano," and then he would post a picture of Cerquetti or someone like that. (For a while, he was on a site called Krakatoa.)

R357, do you know if he has a literary executor who's looking through diaries and letters and things for possible publishing? He must have left a shit-ton of writing behind that he never polished up. I would love to know (if you would share). Thank you

R362, there were some nice people like that. Folks I didn't even know would send me a CD copy of something out of print that I wanted and were constantly on a grand treasure hunt for bootleg copies of performances. Cool folks.

by Anonymous

reply 376

12/06/2017

I don't think that Albert really could have worked for anyone. He went his own way come hell or high water. No matter how much you may have admired him if you had hired him you would soon have come to regret it. He was a real talented handful.

The internet was a godsend for him.

by Anonymous

reply 377

12/06/2017

Girls, isn't this thread supposed to be about pervy Levine?

by Anonymous

reply 378

12/06/2017

R378, can't we make it one big honkin' opera in America thread? We'll add to the Levine story as it develops, but we can simmer and chat about our favorite minor Met characters in between.

by Anonymous

reply 379

12/06/2017

No we cannot.

by Anonymous

reply 380

12/06/2017

I've noticed that opera-related threads, probably because they are so rare, have a tendency to go on tangents. I kinda like it that way.

by Anonymous

reply 381

12/06/2017

R381, me too.

Also, there's not enough developing day-by-day on the Levine story to keep this thread hopping.

by Anonymous

reply 382

12/06/2017

[quote]Ruth Ann Swenson performed a few weeks AFTER the chemotherapy! She bitched that Gelb wanted prettier, thinner sopranos - Danielle de Niese and Renee started taking her roles. Gossip forms at the time made her the responsible party for complaining publicly. However in retrospect, she was right.

Swenson was the epitome of a house soprano... the one that was reliable, yet uninspired, that a big house casting director could use to fill in the gaps. Jonathan Friend at the Met certainly made use of her reliability in the 90's. To claim that Fleming and "Dancin Danielle" stole her roles in the early Gelb years is laughable. Ruthie had unwisely given up her soubrette rep years before Gelb took the helm and she and Fleming were entirely different types of sopranos (plus anyone calling Fleming thinner than Swenson has never seen her in pants). The reality is that Swenson was firmly embedded in a fach that rarely has a career past their early to mid forties. There is always a plethora of young pretty things with young pretty voices ready to take their place. Bigger stars like Battle and Upshaw had already learned that lesson. Unless you're a Netrebko, who starts as Zerlina and genuinely matures into Middle Verdi and light Wagner, you cant expect to get engaged past 40. And it's not like the rest of the opera world was clamoring for her services. She never had much of a career outside the US, and her outside the Met had pretty much evaporated by the time Gelb was in charge. I remember reading about an Adalgisa in Baltimore in the late aughts. That was about the extent of her post Met career. Had she been easier to work with she might have ended up like Hei Kyung Hong, a similar talent (and fixture of the Volpe era) who still gets lots of cover work and a performance or two every season at the Met a decade after Gelb took the helm.

by Anonymous

reply 383

12/06/2017

Fantastic thread, only wish it had more details about BLINDFOLD MASTURBATION

by Anonymous

reply 384

12/06/2017

20 years of a major career in opera is pretty good considering how few make it.

Domingo is just a freak of monstrous proportions. A side show in and of himself.

by Anonymous

reply 385

12/06/2017

Swenson was a complete bore as a soprano. She'd hit the notes but had no stage personality, no fire.

I saw her near the end of her MET career as Cleopatra in Handel's Julius Caesar. She was short and fat and flitting around the stage. It was as pathetic as it was hilarious. Gelb got rid of her because she never added anything to any opera she was in.

As forAlbert Innaurato, he obviously had mental problems, judging from his Opera-L posts. When he died, some posted that AI would personally email them daily with nasty comments if he disagreed with their Opera-L comments. His mental issues is probably why his playwriting career sort of fell apart.

by Anonymous

reply 386

12/06/2017

I wish the MET brought back Aprile Millo. She's the real deal who should be in the prime of her career,

She was just humongous the last time I saw her. I think she's singing alot in South America nowadays.

I never saw a bad performance from her. Real Italianate singing. Loved her!

by Anonymous

reply 387

12/06/2017

R375, I can answer you question and (kind of) get the thread back on track. Years ago on Parterre, Albert, in his MrsJohnClaggart persona, launched into an extended defense of Levine. This defense involved Albert claiming that he knew Michael Jackson (!) and had shared a ride to Disneyworld with Jackson and eight shrieking boys (!!), and that Levine was not at all like Michael Jackson because he, Levine, was never, ever seen with boys. Leaving aside the amazing question of how Albert developed a relationship (never mentioned before or again) with Michael Jackson, his assertion about Levine was flatly wrong. I myself had seen Levine in NYC dining with an unaccompanied underaged-looking boy. Other people have written about similar sightings. Albert's manner with intimidating and authoritative, but he was wrong.

There were other things, too. Also on Parterre, Albert dramatically described the night in April 1990 in which Hildegard Behrens was hit by a piece of scenery at the very end of Gotterdammerung. Well, I'd been in the audience at that performance and remembered it vividly; I even knew someone who had who had treated Behrens after the accident. What Albert wrote diverged significantly both from my memory and from newspaper accounts. It might seem, in the grand scheme of things, to be trivial, but, as with the claims about Levine, it was proof to me that Albert was not above making assertions that parted company with reality.

by Anonymous

reply 388

12/06/2017

If someone forced me to sit through a Swenson or Fleming performance I would choose Swenson any day. I've seen 3 performances of Fleming all pretty bad.

Fleming is one of those people that everybody loves that I just don't get.

Even when she was very young people said she was going to be a great star and she became one.

Clearly there's something I don't know.

by Anonymous

reply 389

12/06/2017

[quote] Levine was not only physically inferior and repulsive, but he was also socially inferior,

Sounds perfectly GHASTLY!

by Anonymous

reply 390

12/06/2017

Sex Symbol

by Anonymous

reply 391

12/06/2017

I saw both Fleming and Swenson live and I, too, would choose Swenson. I saw her do a L'Elisir here in LA with Ramon Vargos back in the 90's that was one of the most exquisitely sung things I've ever heard. No, she wasn't overflowing with personality but my god she made beautiful sounds. And she sang with style and class, unlike Fleming, who scoops, swoops, shrieks and huffs and puffs and sighs until I just can't stand it.

by Anonymous

reply 392

12/06/2017

r387 Ditto on Aprile Millo. She and Diana Soviero were terribly, terribly underused during their Met years.

by Anonymous

reply 393

12/06/2017

Aprile Millo is well-known in opera circles as being out of her fucking mind. Her career never went as far as it could have because she is nuts.

by Anonymous

reply 394

12/06/2017

Care to share, r394? I am a big fan of hers and it would be a real thrill if she really were nuts. All part of divahood.

by Anonymous

reply 395

12/07/2017

I love you opera queens. Your gossip is truly in the original DL spirit.

Well if you want opera at its most Italian demented(which is seriously demented)look no further than Austrian Mozart's D'Oreste d'Ajace from Idomeneo where a spurned lover has a nervous breakdown on stage.

If you can't identify with this you simply aren't gay.

by Anonymous

reply 398

12/07/2017

Aprile Millo, Ashley Putnam and Kallen Esperian are all very good sopranos who I have heard have serious mental problems.

by Anonymous

reply 399

12/07/2017

Kallen was GORGEOUS when she was young.

by Anonymous

reply 400

12/07/2017

From what I hear, she is enormous now.

by Anonymous

reply 401

12/07/2017

And so the non-denial denials begin:

[quote]“As understandably troubling as the accusations noted in recent press accounts are, they are unfounded,” he said in a written statement. “As anyone who truly knows me will attest, I have not lived my life as an oppressor or an aggressor.”

Note that he hasn't issued a blanket denial, something along the lines of "I have never abused anyone, least of all a child."

Notice also that this story broke on Saturday, he has been asked to comment numerous times, and only now is he breaking his silence. Someone who is truly innocent does not usually show this much reticence in proclaiming it.

by Anonymous

reply 402

12/07/2017

Sorry. Here's the correct link.

by Anonymous

reply 403

12/07/2017

This is an interesting piece about Levine, the abuse allegations, and the cult of genius. This little detail is stomach-turning::

[quote]In an interview with Die Welt recently, the coloratura soprano Edda Moser recalled that “Jimmy always had a bunch of little boys around…between seven and maybe 12 years old. They always sat in the wings during the stage rehearsal…they only really got on our nerves because they always banged their feet against the clock and disturbed us musically. They waited for Levine until the rehearsal was over.”

by Anonymous

reply 404

12/08/2017

Edda Moser? So this is as far back as, what, the early seventies? So Chapin onwards, then?

by Anonymous

reply 405

12/08/2017

R402, looks like Big Brother at the NY Times has scrubbed that story.

by Anonymous

reply 406

12/08/2017

R406, go to R403.

by Anonymous

reply 407

12/08/2017

r403 This doesn't even look like he's denying guilt. This looks more like he's shaking his fist at a world that (to him, anyway) has not yet come to accept his revolting sexual perversion.

by Anonymous

reply 408

12/08/2017

R1 and R2, yes. I heard about his activities in local men's rooms with under age boys decades ago. Sad. I think I saw his last gig as conductor- last Sat matinee of Verdi's Requiem- spectacular. So sad.

by Anonymous

reply 409

12/08/2017

True or false: The second of Edda Moser's two G6's on Popoli di Tessaglia is just a shade sharp. I can never make up my mind.

by Anonymous

reply 410

12/08/2017

So he's off the hook for the Illinois incidents, at least so far as criminal charges are concerned. But I thought that was a given, since they happened when the victim was 16 (when was then the Illinois age of consent) and the statute of limitations has long passed.

I imagine there will be civil lawsuits for Levine and the Met to contend with, but I'm not sure what the statute of limitations is on those. The Catholic Church had to pay out damages for abuse that had occurred years before. Could something similar happen with the Met? I'm no lawyer so I have no idea.

by Anonymous

reply 411

12/08/2017

As I understand it, in at least some of the Catholic Church's abuse cases there was such a public outcry that the Church didn't press its statute of limitations defenses and instead set up compensation funds to cover a broad range of victims. Of course, the Church has virtually endless resources; it can afford to pay off a huge number of plaintiffs. Levine, although a millionaire, doesn't have anywhere near that kind of money, and the Met has been financially on very thin ice for years. I imagine that they would both stand their ground as far as the civil statute of limitations goes.

But we just don't know what's going to come out. Will more accusers, more recent victims with ties to the Met, come forward?

by Anonymous

reply 412

12/08/2017

R378...............as another aside, that staged photo was a godsend to the Nazi's - who promptly printed thousands of copies and dropped them as propaganda to cause dissent among the American troops. Well one of those leaflets landed in a foxhole occupied by the grandson of one of the darker-haired woman. He just rolled his eyes.

by Anonymous

reply 413

12/08/2017

Even I find that article stomach churning and I am a major Levine detractor.

And of all people Edda Moser saying Levine could bring small children to watch him from the wings...boggles the mind.

Were they the Harlem Boys Choir?

by Anonymous

reply 414

12/08/2017

[quote]I work at the house. You have no idea what this means. They’ve been covering for him for fifty years.

Well then so were you, right?

by Anonymous

reply 415

12/08/2017

Sure R415. I was. 🙄

by Anonymous

reply 416

12/09/2017

I went to see the Met broadcast today of Hansel and Gretel (which was actually a rebroadcast of a 2008 performance). Interestingly, Levine has been completely scrapped from the introductory credits, where he used to be prominently featured. Vladimir Jurowski was the conductor so they didn't have to worry about that.

Clearly, the Met wants to disappear Levine from its history, but they are going to have a very hard time doing that. He was a vital part of the Met for almost 50 years.

by Anonymous

reply 417

12/09/2017

"The monkey house incident with Caruso is one of opera's great anecdotes but again it involved an adult woman and took place in a zoo. "

R167, as a lifelong fan of Caruso and a student of his life, I would like to set the record straight. The Monkey House incident was a frame-up. Caruso was convicted and fined based on no evidence other than one woman's accusation and that of another woman who supposedly had witnessed the incident. The two were later discovered to be in collusion. Caruso was almost certainly innocent of all charges, but there was a lot of prejudice in those days against Italian-Americans. Caruso was terrified that he'd be booed next time he appeared at the Met. Fortunately the audience didn't believe the story either and greeted him with wild applause when he returned to the stage.

by Anonymous

reply 418

12/09/2017

Caruso was not an Italian American.

He was an Italian.

I honestly don't know which is worse.

by Anonymous

reply 419

12/09/2017

Thanks for the correction. That's true, Caruso was not an American citizen, although he was a long-time resident of New York City. Anyway, people of Italian descent were looked down upon back then, which was the point I was trying to make. Based on your comment, R419, maybe they still are.

by Anonymous

reply 420

12/09/2017

i've never heard of the monkey house incident

by Anonymous

reply 421

12/09/2017

Hey, does the Met Insider have any news for us?

by Anonymous

reply 422

12/09/2017

Everybody except the psychos like Gelb and Levine are shitting a brick. And clearly the Times has been silenced.

by Anonymous

reply 423

12/10/2017

And this is the best comment from Alex Ross, clearly a brain-damaged man, 'his most effective response has been his performances, which make all the gossip sound bitter and small.'

Germany one of the greatest cultures of the world started 2 count 'em fucking 2 world wars in a span of 25 years. How many millions upon millions dead for no reason?

Absolutely spectacular.

In terms of character art doesn't mean shit and never has. How could anybody not know this?

by Anonymous

reply 424

12/10/2017

R424, to be fair to Ross, he wrote that horrible line years ago, and has since apologized.

But it does speak to the mindset of the people who looked the other way during Levine’s career. He convinced everyone that he was such a great artist that his “flaws” should be ignored.

by Anonymous

reply 425

12/10/2017

The "great artist" argument apparently was dreamed up by pedos and other predators to put themselves in positions of power where they can more easily prey on victims.

by Anonymous

reply 426

12/10/2017

R419 R424 People who were born after WW I and especially WW II (because of Hitler's Satanic regime)who lived in the New York area had to hide the fact they were German. If you were part Italian and German, you claimed the Italian descent NOT The German. Even the Trump family denied it was German and said they were Swedish. It was much worse to be a German than an Italian to most New Yorkers. Most particularly Jewish ones.

by Anonymous

reply 427

12/10/2017

[quote] It was much worse to be a German than an Italian to most New Yorkers.

I was born after WWII, but am not Jewish. I lived in an Irish/Italian/Jewish neighborhood in NJ. I thought German was the most evil thing in the universe. This was exacerbated by the fact of my mother's father having emigrated from Austria between the wars. He would not allow German to be spoken in his house (he had a sister and a cousin who lived down the street after they moved to NJ). Anyway, one of the most shocking things I saw up to that time was when I went to college, and had a Jewish girlfriend whose parents owned a BMW and a VW. This was in Pittsburgh. No Jewish family I knew in NJ would have thought of owning a German car.

by Anonymous

reply 428

12/10/2017

[quote]I thought I recognized the hand of my favorite opera commentator in this thread, and I just found out that he died in September at a relatively young age. Apparently, there was a thread made at the time, but with less than 10 posts. Honestly, I'm in shock. That is all.

Only to an opera queen would someone aged 70 be considered young!

by Anonymous

reply 429

12/10/2017

Bump it with a trumpet. Totally off-topic.

My local movie theatre is rebroadcasting The Exterminating Angel tonight. Asking in the most general way: Should I go? Is it any good? What can I expect? I enjoy all kinds of opera from all time periods.

Popcorn and soda aside, I can see it for free. I got a free ticket thanks to their fucked-up broadcast of the NT Follies.

by Anonymous

reply 430

12/11/2017

r427: NYC 's current Mayors real last name is Wilhelm from his German father, But he prefers to use his mothers maiden name and be considered Italian-American.

by Anonymous

reply 431

12/11/2017

[quote]My local movie theatre is rebroadcasting The Exterminating Angel tonight. Asking in the most general way: Should I go? Is it any good? What can I expect? I enjoy all kinds of opera from all time periods.

Choosing between a Fleming and a Swenson performance, I would go to neither. Both made gorgeous sounds but were so boring on stage, I'd rather take a nap.

by Anonymous

reply 433

12/11/2017

Thanks, r432. Is the opera faithful to the film's plot? Does it include the scene in church? Are there bears and sheep?! I'm starting to get a bit excited.

r433 I'm really not sure I can even say Fleming made gorgeous sounds. But then again I usually can't hear past the breathing.

by Anonymous

reply 434

12/11/2017

R434, the sheep are there, I've heard. Not sure about the bears! And it does end with the church scene.

by Anonymous

reply 435

12/11/2017

[quote]Thanks, [R432]. Is the opera faithful to the film's plot? Does it include the scene in church? Are there bears and sheep?! I'm starting to get a bit excited.

The storyline of the original film is...odd and abstract. If anything the music manages to illustrate the big emotional moments in the story passed over in the film.

Yes there are bears and sheep. (real sheep, fake bears)

by Anonymous

reply 436

12/11/2017

A bit off-track, but anyway, opera fans: Why in "Faust" does Marguerite have to be saved from being damned and have her life ruined when it's the fucking tenor Faust who sold his soul to Mefistophele, not Marguerite? She's a sweet thing who did nothing wrong, kind of like those little black kids who were allegedly assaulted by Levine (to bring it back to topic).

by Anonymous

reply 437

12/11/2017

R437, she killed her baby, that's why she was in prison when Mefistophele tempts her.

by Anonymous

reply 438

12/11/2017

It's free and you enjoy all kinds of opera so go. If you hate it you can leave.

by Anonymous

reply 439

12/11/2017

r436 OK, so if I read you right, faithful but emphasizes the emotional moments. Works for me. Probably what I had hoped it would be.

r439 I will, thanks. But I can use the ticket for any show (the Greta Gerwig movie sounds good, or any of the Met broadcasts next year, or Follies) so I thought I’d check in.

by Anonymous

reply 440

12/11/2017

As said above Margherite is forgiven by God for killing her baby because she refuses the temptations of the devil.

Like in Suor Angelica at the end of the opera she commits suicide (after learning of the death of her illegitimate child who was taken from her when he was born) which in the Catholic church is a mortal sin and guarantees you a one way ticket to eternal hell.

So she's got two strikes against her. A baby out of wedlock and suicide.

But she as well is forgiven because she asks for forgiveness from God and as she dies she enters into heaven and is reunited with her child by the Blessed Mother.

Spineless directors(willing to show every kind of depravity on the opera stage) today cheat and make her demented and in her delirium she thinks she's being reunited with her child. But this is totally bogus because in the opera she really is reunited in heaven with her son. And you've got the Virgin Mary and the angels with some of Puccini's most beautiful music to bring everything to a rousing conclusion.

by Anonymous

reply 441

12/11/2017

Opera directors think they have to fuck with everything now. It's not good unless it's overwrought and overdone.

by Anonymous

reply 442

12/11/2017

Just wanted to report back.

Enjoyed Exterminating Angel. I thought the libretto was very well structured; hewing close to the film probably helped. Great orchestration, and not just for the unusual instruments. Interesting how Act 3, when the guests descend into hunger and delirium, had the most lush sounds. Same with the vocal writing and the singing. Act 3 had the more conventional arias, duets, trios, choruses (or at least what passes for those) and also the more lyrical passages. The A6 was not really an attention-getter since most of the women's parts were written so high. High enough anyway that most of them struggled with enunciation. I wouldn't have understood anything the hostess sang if there weren't subtitles. The soprano with the A6 actually enunciated best. If there was any doubt that one could empathize with characters like these, that was put to rest by everything from the point they realized how they could get out, right to the end where (this isn't really a spoiler is it) they get trapped again. Emotional and thrilling.

Rod(ney) Gilfry in sock garters is kinda hot.

by Anonymous

reply 443

12/12/2017

Oh, yeah, whoever designed that bear and whoever was inside that costume have never seen a real bear. It looked like a real animal, for sure, just not a bear.

by Anonymous

reply 444

12/12/2017

Bryn Terfel just pulled of the opening night Tosca due to 'vocal fatigue.'

I would say yes. But his Scarpia is just so overwrought. The facial contortions are hard to take. Pretty much all of the Te Deum is sung at volume 11.

by Anonymous

reply 450

12/12/2017

by Anonymous

reply 451

12/12/2017

What's with all this Jew shit? Levine was, is,a fat and unattractive male. Also a Jew, beside the point. He is a pig because he is a pig, not a Jew. The producer one is gross too. Gross first, jew second. And all you "insider" pousers can rest, there will be no big Times expose

by Anonymous

reply 452

12/12/2017

R452 You can be German and be a fucking pedo pig. You can be a WASP and be a pedo pig. You can be a Briton and be a pedo pig. You can be a Catholic and be a pedo pig. Levine is a Jew and he is a pedo pig.

by Anonymous

reply 453

12/12/2017

AMEN R453

by Anonymous

reply 454

12/12/2017

The staff at the Met has been told not to talk to anybody about Levine, not even amongst themselves. The silence is deafening. Meanwhile, some Levine merchandise is being pulled from the website and gift shop, no longer available for sale......

by Anonymous

reply 455

12/12/2017

[quote]Meanwhile, some Levine merchandise is being pulled from the website and gift shop, no longer available for sale......

OMG, that begs to be one of those "Let's be..." threads. What are some special Levine product offers, DL?

by Anonymous

reply 456

12/12/2017

R455 here. wit and wisdom to you, R456! I can say that the real Levine "merchandise" in question was only a dvd box set that was tied in to his anniversary with the house. (His 40th? 45th? Sorry, I don't remember)

by Anonymous

reply 457

12/12/2017

There was Levine merchandise?

by Anonymous

reply 458

12/12/2017

I spoke in the spring to a singer who had won the MET competition, been through the young artist program, and sang many lead roles in the house. She hinted darkly that things would never be good with the company or its artists as long as Levine was there. I didn't question her about it because I could see it upset her. Now I know that they must have all known all along.

by Anonymous

reply 459

12/12/2017

A Metropolitan Opera Jimmy Levine Merchandise Let's Be thread would be heaven.

by Anonymous

reply 460

12/12/2017

I'll be the cum rag with Winnie the Pooh characters on it

by Anonymous

reply 461

12/12/2017

Jesus fuck, R461, that is dark even by DL standards.

by Anonymous

reply 462

12/12/2017

So the Metropolitan Opera and The New York Times return to the silence business as usual?

R421, here is a link that gives a description of the Enrico Caruso monkey house incident, which took place in November, 1906. The complainant alleged that Caruso pinched her fanny at the Central Park Zoo's monkey house. She gave investigators a false name, "Hannah Graham," and then disappeared, but Caruso was found guilty anyway and fined $10. It was probably a police shakedown. Caruso vehemently asserted his innocence.

by Anonymous

reply 467

12/12/2017

good lord, ridiculous!

by Anonymous

reply 468

12/12/2017

A second MET conductor was accused today, the man who conducted NORMA on the radio broadcast today and teaches at Mannes.

by Anonymous

reply 469

12/16/2017

The James Levine cologne never caught on.

by Anonymous

reply 470

12/16/2017

Did you ever see Levine conduct? He sweat such buckets they had to drain the orchestra pit after every act.

by Anonymous

reply 471

12/17/2017

Joseph Colaneri

by Anonymous

reply 472

12/17/2017

I’m loathe to not believe this considering Colaneri is an asshole, but the girl who accused him is a known loon who has been pushed out of the business because of her homophobia and psychopathy. She had a weird little dustup about some coffee place near me that included homophobic remarks and that briefly made her Twitter infamous. She’s a cunt and has zero career with good reason.

by Anonymous

reply 473

12/18/2017

oh very interesting. i'd love to hear more backstory about this.

by Anonymous

reply 474

12/18/2017

r473 Dang, this is the juiciest gossip on DL right now. Any links to her Twitter infamy?

by Anonymous

reply 475

12/18/2017

As an elder gay, hell maybe even when I was young, I'd do Colaneri.

Levine not even on the pain of death. The idea of that man slobbering over anybody is about as disgusting an image as is possible. I imagine even rent boys refused him.

by Anonymous

reply 476

12/18/2017

What do we know about this guy? I'd do him. He's hot and his Berlioz is fantastic.

by Anonymous

reply 477

12/18/2017

And his name would be r477? Nicely aging face, the hair we all probably wish we had.....but you can't Google a nicely aging face and fabulous hair and narrow it down much.

by Anonymous

reply 478

12/18/2017

I know a bit about Kallen Esperian. We're friendly and I've done a couple projects with her. She had surgery for a brain tumor and the steroids caused her to gain weight and it's fucked a bit with her memory in terms of essaying roles. She's still a great concert singer and has had a lot of crap in her life.

by Anonymous

reply 479

12/18/2017

[quote]you can't Google a nicely aging face and fabulous hair and narrow it down much.

Oh, really?

by Anonymous

reply 480

12/18/2017

Robin Ticciati. Has conducted at the Met only a few times, including the Onegin broadcast with the Russian woman. Principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (succeeding Mackerras) and music director of Glyndebourne. As I mentioned, he has a handful of recordings of Berlioz (and others as well) and they are all fabulous. Hope he does Les Troyens somewhere soon. Not clear if he's family, other than the gayface.

by Anonymous

reply 481

12/18/2017

Thanks for the KE info. Had no idea she battled cancer.

by Anonymous

reply 482

12/18/2017

The tides seem to be turning against Colaneri's accuser. Anyone know her name?

by Anonymous

reply 483

12/19/2017

10 dollars in 1901 is 6 million In 2017 dollars.

by Anonymous

reply 484

12/19/2017

10 dollars was a penny to Caruso. The man was probably being paid more than $1,000 a performance in 1906 which is an insane amount of money and when you consider in was not taxed it is mindboggling.

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